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ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS    AND 
COMMERCIAL    DEVELOPMENT 

(With  a  History  of  the  Erie  Canal) 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON    •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 


AND 


coMMERCiAL  Development 

(WITH, A  $;$VC)Ky;OF;TFE  ERIE  CANAL) 


BY 

A.  BARTON  HEPBURN,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

AUTHOR  OF   "THE  CONTEST  FOR  SOUND  MONEY,"   ETC 


4>.  ^^, 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1909 

AN  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  igog, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  January,  1909. 


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FOREWORD  \K  ^o 

The  first  improvement  upon  the  slow,  tedi- 
ous, and  costly  means  of  transportation  by 
beasts  of  burden  and  vehicles  was  accomplished 
by  utilizing  rivers,  supplemented  by  canals,  as 
a  thoroughfare  for  boats  and  barges. 

These  waterways  determined  the  routes  of 
commerce  until  the  locomotive  engine  made 
land  routes  the  more  popular,  as  they  were 
the  more  expeditious.  Reaching  in  all  direc- 
tions, spanning  waterways,  tunneling  moun- 
tains, and  defying  obstacles  generally,  they 
naturally  took  command  of  trade.  In  almost 
all  other  countries,  the  commercial  advantage 
of  maintaining  both  land  and  water  routes  was 
fully  appreciated ;  in  the  United  States,  the 
impatience  of  all  delay,  which  characterizes  our 
people  in  their  rush  to  anticipate  the  future 
and  bring  the  latent  resources  of  our  phenome- 
nally rich  country  into  soonest  possible  use, 
however  wasteful  such  haste  may  be,  found 
expression  in  the  development  and  expansion 


Vi  FOREWORD 

of  railway,  and  the  comparative  neglect  of 
canal  and  river  transportation,  especially  during 
the  last  three  decades.  Denser  population  with 
increased  local  needs,  the  greater  consumption 
which  accompanies  the  growing  wealth  of  the 
people,  the  congestion  of  trafific  generally,  and 
many  other  causes,  are  teaching  people  the 
unwisdom  of  neglecting  the  cheaper,  albeit 
slower,  means  of  transportation. 

People  have  come  to  realize  that  the  function 
of  artificial  water  navigation  is  to  supplement 
and  complement,  and  not  to  rival,  the  railways. 
The  great  development  and  successful  rivalry 
of  the  Canadian  canals  have  attracted  wide 
attention  and  done  much  to  bring  to  our  people 
a  proper  appreciation  of  the  great  service  which 
canals  and  canalized  rivers  may  render. 

The  failure  of  New  York  State  to  develop 
and  maintain  her  canal  system  found  yearly 
expression  in  the  loss  of  commerce  to  the  city 
of  New  York;  this  manifest  fact  led  to  the 
present  great  work  of  enlarging  the  capacity 
of  her  canals.  Her  canal  system  is  typical, 
and  influences  which  call  for  improvement  and 
enlargement   in    New   York  will,    wiLh    equal 


FOREWORD  vii 

force,  call  for  the  development  of  artificial 
waterways  throughout  the  country.  Such  de- 
velopment seems  to  be  an  imperative  need  of 
internal  trade. 

In  order  to  place  before  the  public  in  con- 
cise form  the  salient  facts  as  to  artificial 
waterways  and  their  relation  to  commercial 
development,  this  volume  has  been  prepared. 
As  typical  of  all,  the  history  of  the  Erie  Canal 
is  given,  together  with  a  general  review  of  the 
canal  systems  of  the  world. 

A.   BARTON   HEPBURN. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  World's  Canals i 

The  Canal  System  of  New  York 

I.     The  Period  of  Inception l6 

II.     The  Period  of  Development        ....  33 

III.  The  Present  Conditions 49 

IV.  The  Competition  against  New  York  City    .        .  67 

The  Panama  Canal 79 

The  Waterways  Question  and  Conservation  of  our 

Resources 88 

Appendix 95 

Statistical  Tables 

A.  Relating  to  New  York  Canals        .        .        .        •97 

B.  Relating  to  Commerce  of  New  York  City       .        .  105 

C.  Miscellaneous 109 


ARTIPICJAL   WATERWAYS.      ^ 


THE  .WQRLD'S  CANALS 

The  importance  of  a  well-devised  and  judi- 
ciously located  canal  system,  as  a  factor  in  the 
material  development  and  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion of  a  country,  is  apt  to  be  underestimated 
by  most  men,  in  these  days  of  multiplied  rail- 
way communication.  Prior  to  the  first  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  mankind  was  de- 
pendent upon  the  tedious  and  costly  transpor- 
tation by  animal  power,  except  where  waterways 
could  be  made  available.  Adam  Smith,  writ- 
ing, of  course,  before  the  era  of  railways,  and 
having  observed  the  enormous  difficulties  of 
traffic  over  poor  highways,  in  imperfect  vehi- 
cles, characterized  the  introduction  of  artificial 
waterways  very  conservatively  when  he  said,  in 
his  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  that  "  navigable  canals 
are  among  the  greatest  of  all  improvements." 


2  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

We  find  the  canal  device  for  supplementing 
Nature's  gifts  to  man  in  the  way  of  inland  seas 
and  rivers,  utilized  very  early  in  the  history  of 
the  race;  for  even  if  we  regard  as  perhaps 
legendary  the  c-.ssertion  of  Egyptologists  that 
the  predecessors  of  the  Pharaohs  had  created 
a  canal  system  as  far  back  as  7000  b.c,  it  is 
quite  certain  that  the,  Egyptians,  the  Chal- 
deans, and  probably  also  the  Chinese,  dug  ar- 
tificial waterways  many  centuries  before  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  At  first  these 
man-made  waterways  were,  doubtless,  merely 
for  irrigation  purposes ;  but  it  was  not  long 
before  they  were  utilized  to  transport  surplus 
products  from  place  to  place,  connecting  natu- 
ral bodies  of  water ;  eventually  circumventing 
the  obstacles  presented  by  cataracts ;  ultimately 
shortening  ocean  routes  for  the  largest  ves- 
sels and  converting  inland  cities  into  artificial 
seaports. 

Constructive  ingenuity  must  have  been  de- 
veloped quite  extensively  to  have  made  it  pos- 
sible for  Nebuchadnezzar  to  restore  the  great 
canal  of  Babylon,  mentioned  by  Herodotus  as 
one  of  that  ancient  city's  wonders;    originally 


THE   WORLD'S   CANALS  3 

cut,  as  the  antiquaries  state,  about  1700  B.C., 
that  great  ruler  made  it  available  for  merchant 
vessels  in  his  day  (say  about  600  B.C.).  It 
would  appear  that  at  about  this  time  also  there 
was  begun  the  construction  of  the  predecessor 
of  the  present  Suez  Canal,  connecting  the  Nile 
and  the  Mediterranean  with  the  Red  Sea,  fin- 
ished later  by  one  of  the  rulers  of  Egypt.  This 
waterway  is  said  to  have  been  in  use  until  the 
ascendency  of  the  Mohammedans  in  Egypt; 
the  caliph  Al-Mansour  is  discredited  with  hav- 
ing ordered  its  destruction  in  767  a.d. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  those  great  road 
and  aqueduct  builders,  the  Romans,  have  left 
us  no  important  commercial  waterways.  Ma- 
rius  indeed  connected  the  Rhone  with  the 
Mediterranean  in  Gaul,  and  Claudius  joined 
the  Tiber  and  the  sea ;  in  Britain  two  dikes  are 
credited  to  the  Roman  period ;  but  of  these  rel- 
atively insignificant  examples  nothing  remains 
at  this  day;  the  records  show  a  number  of 
ambitious  plans  for  canals  during  the  reign 
of  the  Caesars,  but  their  wars  rendered  the 
practical  execution  of  the  enterprises  impos- 
sible.     Thus    Europe,   with   its   noble   rivers, 


4  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

remained  far  behind  in  the  adaptation  of 
the  artificial  means  of  increasing  their  utiUty. 
Charlemagne  joined  the  upper  Rhine  and  the 
Danube,  and  conceived  the  plan  of  connect- 
ing the  Danube  and  the  Main,  probably  less 
for  trade  purposes  than  as  a  means  to  solidify 
his  empire.  The  last-named  scheme  was  finally 
carried  into  execution  in  the  nineteenth  century 
by  Louis  I  of  Bavaria. 

China's  comprehensive  canal  building  prob- 
ably began  in  the  seventh  century;  we  are 
told  that  her  Grand  Canal,  connecting  her 
capital  with  the  sea  at  Canton,  and  branching 
to  other  points,  finished  about  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  was  600  years  in  con- 
struction ;  including  canalized  rivers,  its  length 
exceeds  1000  miles,  the  longest  navigable  ar- 
tificial waterway  in  the  world.  Lesser  ones, 
none  modern,  ramify  the  entire  country,  which 
until  very  recently  had  not  a  mile  of  railway. 
The  system  comprises  5300  miles  and  has 
proved  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  that 
teeming  empire  ;  with  its  aid  the  great  prob- 
lem of  subsisting  400,000,000  human  beings 
was  solved ;  not  only  are  transportation  facili- 


THE   WORLD'S   CANALS  5 

ties  and  irrigation  provided ;  the  canals  supply 
an  abundance  of  fish,  and  from  their  beds  is 
drawn  a  mass  of  muck  to  fertilize  the  soil. 

The  beginnings  of  Europe's  great  canal 
systems  may  be  placed  somewhere  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  the  credit  for  its  practical 
inauguration  belongs  to  the  Dutch,  although 
there  are  evidences  that  the  British,  as  early 
as  1 1 34,  and  the  Italians  somewhat  later,  did 
some  work  upon  their  waterways.  The  "low 
countries "  were  by  nature  peculiarly  adapted 
for  canalization,  and  to  this  day  they  have 
the  greatest  mileage  of  canals  compared  with 
area.  The  aggregate  mileage,  including  the 
part  now  known  as  Belgium,  is  given  as  over 
3400,  the  area  as  24,000  square  miles.  This 
region,  together  with  northeastern  France,  had 
by  the  year  1250  quite  a  respectable  system  of 
waterways. 

But  the  great  impulse  to  canal  construction 
came  after  the  invention  of  the  use  of  locks, 
which  enabled  engineers  to  overcome  the  ob- 
stacles presented  by  elevations.  This  improve- 
ment is  claimed  for  both  Dutch  and  Italians ; 
for  the  latter,  at  about   1481,  for    the   former 


6  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

nearly  a  hundred  years  earlier.  Nevertheless, 
the  prevalence  of  wars  in  Europe  prevented 
the  extensive  development  of  waterways  for 
more  than  a  century. 

Holland's  development  has  probably  been 
the  most  remarkable  ;  while  most  of  the  works 
were  for  inland  transport,  the  magnificent 
ship  canal,  by  which  the  port  facilities  of  Am- 
sterdam were,  in  1826  and  again  in  1876,  very 
materially  enlarged,  stands  as  one  of  the  most 
noteworthy  engineering  feats.  More  recently 
the  connection  of  that  port  and  Rotterdam 
with  the  lower  Rhine  merits  special  notice. 
Always  guarding  her  commercial  interests, 
once  far  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  still,  relatively  to  area  and  population,  oc- 
cupying front  rank,  the  little  kingdom  has  not 
hesitated  to  make  great  sacrifices  temporarily, 
to  attain  the  objects  in  view.  Thus  the  2244 
miles  of  canals  are  kept  in  efificient  condition, 
and  show  a  steady  increase  in  utility  to  her 
commerce, 

Belgium  has  not  maintained  her  canal  sys- 
tem so  well,  and  hence  has  not  shown  the 
extent  of  traffic    increase    observable    in  Hoi- 


THE   WORLD'S   CANALS  f 

land.  The  navigable  waterways,  Including 
rivers  and  canals,  show  a  mileage  of  1360, 
actively  employed. 

France  began  in  1605  the  comprehensive 
system  which  has  added  nearly  3000  miles  of 
canals  to  her  natural  waterways,  at  a  cost 
estimated  at  fully  $750,000,000.  The  greatest 
of  her  many  works  was  the  Languedoc,  con- 
necting the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Bay 
of  Biscay,  148  miles,  first  opened  in  1668. 
This  connection  was  greatly  improved  In  later 
centuries,  the  present  Canal  du  Midi,  255  miles, 
being  charged  with  a  total  cost  exceeding 
$100,000,000.  But  the  important  fact  is  that 
the  greater  part  of  this  system,  now  owned 
by  the  Government,  has  been  well  maintained, 
and  plans  therefor,  since  the  opening  of  the 
present  century,  contemplate  the  application  of 
fully  $100,000,000  in  addition.  Since  1880  the 
canals  have  all  been  free,  toll  charges  having 
been  abolished  during  that  year.  Water  trafific 
has  more  than  doubled  since. 

Germany  had  canals  connecting  some  of  her 
great  rivers  prior  to  1700,  but  the  develop- 
ment of  the  present  system  was  postponed  to 


8  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

modern  times.  Once  undertaken,  however,  it 
progressed  quickly,  energetically,  and  with  great 
practical  results.  Nearly  every  one  of  her  noble 
streams  is  connected  at  commercially  strategic 
points,  and  no  expense  has  been  spared  to 
accomplish  the  purpose  in  view.  Thus  it  is  re- 
ported that  in  Prussia  alone  the  plans,  in  1904, 
contemplated  an  outlay  of  $80,000,000,  follow- 
ing an  expense  of  a  nearly  equal  sum  in  the 
twenty  years  preceding.  Not  content  with  the 
great  Kiel  Ship  Canal  (to  cut  off  the  rounding  of 
Denmark,  by  vessels  plying  between  the  Baltic 
and  North  seas),  which  cost  $40,000,000,  a 
second  and  shorter  route  between  these  bodies 
of  water,  via  the  rivers  Elbe  and  Trave,  for 
smaller  craft,  was  opened  in  1900.  It  is  now 
proposed  to  enlarge  the  Kiel  Canal  or  construct 
a  new  one  with  greater  capacity.  Germany 
has  1320  miles  of  canals,  with  15,760  miles  of 
navigable  rivers ;  her  experiences  furnish  the 
best  example  of  the  value  of  waterway  devel- 
opment and  maintenance  in  our  day.  It  is, 
however,  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  entire 
transport  system  there  is  under  Government 
control. 


THE   WORLD'S   CANALS  9 

Great  Britain's  first  important  work  is  to 
be  credited  to  the  celebrated  Duke  of  Bridge- 
water,  who  in  1757  promoted  the  connection 
of  Manchester  with  Liverpool  by  means  of  a 
38-mile  canal ;  this  has  in  recent  years  been 
much  enlarged  in  capacity  at  a  cost  of 
$75,000,000.  The  new  construction,  finished 
in  1893,  gives  a  minimum  depth  of  26  feet.  A 
very  substantial  part  of  the  2800  miles  of 
canals  in  the  United  Kingdom  was  completed 
in  the  eighteenth  century ;  no  new  inland 
work  of  importance  has  been  undertaken  since 
1834.  Nearly  11 50  miles  of  these  interior 
waterways  are  operated  by  railway  companies, 
in  conjunction  with  their  land  traffic;  these 
carry  about  one  seventh  of  the  42,000,000  tons 
of  freight  transported  by  all  canals.  In  Scot- 
land there  are  two  canals  between  the  North 
Sea  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  but  neither  is 
now  of  special  importance.  A  project  to  en- 
large one  of  these  into  a  ship  canal,  connect- 
ing the  Firth  of  Forth  with  the  Clyde,  at  an 
expense  of  about  $38,000,000,  has  been  under 
consideration.  Ireland's  Grand  Canal,  165 
miles  long,  connecting  Dublin  with  the  river 


10  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

Shannon  and  other  points,  is  its  chief  water- 
way. 

Denmark,  when  it  owned  Holstein,  had 
a  Baltic-North  Sea  canal,  part  of  which  is 
now  used  for  the  new  Kiel  Ship  Canal ;  other- 
wise its  system  is  purely  local  and  not  exten- 
sive. 

In  Russia,  Peter  the  Great  was  the  first 
builder  of  important  canals ;  he  began  by 
connecting  his  capital  on  the  Neva,  by  way  of 
the  Volga,  with  the  Caspian  Sea,  to  reach 
more  expeditiously  the  caravan  trade  of  south- 
western Asia,  upon  which  the  Muscovite  has 
for  centuries  had  his  eyes.  Subsequently 
connection  was  made  with  the  ports  on  the 
Arctic  Ocean ;  the  Black  and  the  Caspian 
seas  and  the  rivers  Dniester  and  Vistula,  were 
joined,  the  latter  involving  461  miles  of 
canal  and  river  way,  said  to  have  cost  over 
$100,000,000.  The  recently  finished  Cron- 
stadt-St.  Petersburg  Canal  cost  $10,000,000, 
for  its  six  miles  of  20^  feet  depth.  The  more 
ambitious  project  of  making  a  27-foot  waterway, 
from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Baltic,  1000  miles, 
to  cost  nearly  $100,000,000,  is   the  latest  pro- 


THE   WORLD'S   CANALS  II 

posed  addition  to  Russia's  means  for  com- 
mercial expansion. 

Austria-Hungary's  canal  system  is  less  heard 
of,  but  for  her  internal  trade,  connecting  all 
sections  with  the  great  Danube,  is  of  tran- 
scendent importance.  It  adds  1700  miles  to 
her  5500  of  natural  waterways.  A  project  to 
connect  the  Danube  with  the  Oder  and  the 
Elbe  is  under  consideration. 

Sweden  began  canalization  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century  and  has  maintained  a 
system  serving  the  interests  of  several  interior 
commicrcial  cities ;  but  the  system  is  chiefly 
local,  her  topography  not  calling  for  trunk 
canals. 

Italy's  664  miles  of  canals  have  likewise 
only  local  importance,  yet  they  serve  her 
people  well. 

The  Corinth  Ship  Canal  in  Greece  is  a  not- 
able one ;  only  4  miles  in  length,  it  cost 
$5,000,000  and  saves  ships  a  detour  of  from 
100  to  175  miles.     It  was  opened  in  1893. 

Spain  has,  in  the  matter  of  canals,  as  in 
many  other  respects,  failed  to  keep  abreast 
of  her  neighbors.     Her  long-cherished  plan  of 


12  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

joining  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Bay  of 
Biscay  remains  in  abeyance,  being  less  than 
half  built  at  the  present  time.  In  the  reign  of 
Charles  II,  the  Council  of  Castile  opposed 
canal  plans,  as  an  interference  with  the  wis- 
dom of  Divine  Providence,  which  had  fixed  the 
waterways. 

India  has  the  world's  longest  canal,  that  of 
Bengal,  900  miles ;  there  are  two  others  of 
about  600  and  450  miles  respectively ;  but  these 
are  primarily  for  irrigation  purposes ;  there  are 
many  lesser  ones  employed  for  transportation. 

The  Suez  Canal,  finished  in  1869,  and  cost- 
ing $90,000,000,  may  be  characterized  as  the 
most  important  and  epoch-making  work  of  its 
class.  It  eliminates  the  long,  tedious,  and 
dangerous  voyage  around  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  reducing  the  route  of  the  valuable 
Oriental  trade  one  third.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  the  tonnage  passing  through  it 
is  by  no  means  the  largest,  aggregating  now 
about  12,000,000  net  tons  annually. 

Although  the  records  indicate  that  the 
Peruvians  had  canals,  these  were  probably 
irrigation  works ;  certain  it  is  that  commercial 


THE  WORLD'S   CANALS  13 

canals  in  the  western  continent  are  confined  to 
North  America,  and  practically  to  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  where  numerous  note- 
worthy examples  exist.  The  five  great  inland 
seas  naturally  first  attracted  attention;  their 
connection  with  tide  water  has  given  the  engi- 
neering profession  abundant  opportunity  to  dis- 
play their  skill,  and  the  more  distinctly  local 
undertakings  of  joining  the  great  rivers  with 
each  other  and  with  the  great  lakes,  have 
employed  the  energies  of  all  progressive 
citizens. 

In  the  United  States  alone,  the  total  mileage 
of  canal  works  is  placed  at  4479,  of  which,  how- 
ever, nearly  2000  miles  have  been  abandoned. 
The  cost,  up  to  1900,  is  estimated  to  have  been 
$220,000,000.  The  works  of  special  note  are 
the  Erie,  in  New  York  State ;  the  Cincinnati 
and  Erie,  in  Ohio ;  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio, 
and  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  in  Michigan.  The 
last  named  was  opened  in  1855,  and,  although 
less  than  two  miles  in  length,  bears  the  world's 
record  of  vessel  tonnage,  —  32,000,000  tons  in 
one  year. 

Canada  has  also  an  important  canal  around  St. 


14  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

Mary's  Falls  (opened  1895).  For  the  purpose 
of  getting  around  the  Niagara  Falls,  Canada 
built  the  Welland  Canal,  a  very  expensive  work, 
but  commercially  of  the  first  importance.  She 
has  many  lesser  canals,  and  by  means  of  her 
system  has  builded  an  enormous  volume  of 
commerce.  It  is  estimated  that  Canada  has 
spent  fully  $110,000,000  upon  artificial  water- 
ways, the  largest,  relative  to  population  and 
period  of  construction,  on  record.  We  shall 
presently  consider  the  effect  of  this  policy  upon 
her  commerce. 

Mulhall,  the  eminent  British  statistician,  gives 
the  mileage  of  existing  canals  and  rivers  in  use, 
in  Europe,  at  over  77,000,  of  which  13,293  miles 
are  canals.  In  the  United  States  the  canal 
mileage  is  reported  as  4479,  the  mileage  of 
other  waterways  is  47,355 ;  while  Canada  has  535 
miles  of  canals  and  2820  of  rivers,  and  China 
5270  miles  of  canals  and  only  3800  of  rivers. 
The  total  of  the  world's  canals  reaches  about 
26,000  miles;  the  cost  has  been  in  excess  of 
$2,000,000,000. 

It  was  natural  that  the  advent  of  railways 
should   interfere,  in   most  countries,  with   the 


THE   WORLD'S    CANALS  15 

development  and  profitableness  of  canals.  In 
only  a  few  have  the  two  systems  been  used 
jointly  and  improved  equally.  The  more  speedy 
transit  furnished  by  rail  is  the  chief  factor  in 
attracting  freight  at  the  expense  of  the  slower 
canal  transportation.  This  has  been  specially 
noticeable  in  the  United  States.  But  the  ques- 
tion of  cheapening  transportation  has  again 
come  to  the  fore  ;  expert  testimony  shows  that 
by  means  of  properly  adapted  waterways,  the 
charge  is  at  least  one  third  less,  and  this  is 
accomplished  by  the  expenditure  of  one  thirtieth 
the  hauling  power.  This  fact,  and  the  enor- 
mous increase  in  traffic,  have  revived  interest 
in  the  subject  of  waterways  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  The  prices  of  necessaries  of 
life  have  been  enhanced  by  a  multitude  of 
causes,  and  the  world  is  endeavoring  to  reduce 
the  part  of  the  cost  due  to  transportation. 


THE  CANAL  SYSTEM  OF  NEW 
YORK 

I 

The  Period  of  Inception 

The  value,  nay  the  imperative  need,  of  arti- 
ficial connections  between  the  inland  lakes  and 
rivers  of  the  United  States  and  the  streams 
emptying  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  impressed  it- 
self upon  the  far-seeing  men  of  the  days  before 
the  Revolution,  when  the  migration  of  the  most 
venturesome  of  the  population  toward  the  West 
began.  Particularly  in  New  York  was  this  the 
case ;  for  thriving  settlements  had  sprung  into 
existence  along  the  banks  of  her  beautiful  rivers. 
Albany  was  already  a  place  of  considerable  im- 
portance, and  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk  boasted 
a  number  of  hamlets.  As  early  as  1 724,  Cadwal- 
lader  Golden,  Surveyor  General,  subsequently 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  colony,  after  an  ex- 
ploration of  a  part  of  the  region,  pictured  a  future 

16 


THE   CANAL  SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  \y 

"  scene  of  inland  navigation  such  as  cannot  be 
paralleled  in  any  other  part  of  the  world." 
Gouverneur  Morris,  as  early  as  1777,  predicted 
the  eventual  union  of  the  waters  of  the  Lakes 
with  those  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Atlantic. 

George  Washington,  with  the  practical  ap- 
preciation of  an  engineer  and  surveyor,  began, 
immediately  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  to  urge  the  utilization  of  the  unique 
facilities  which  Nature  had,  it  would  seem,  so 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  purpose  in  view.  No- 
where did  the  natural  barriers  presented  by  the 
Appalachian  range  of  mountains  between  the 
seaboard  and  the  vast  territory  to  the  west,  so 
readily  offer  a  way  as  that  to  be  found  in  New 
York  State ;  the  Hudson  River,  carrying  tide 
water  through  a  mountain  cleft  for  a  distance 
of  150  miles;  its  tributary,  the  Mohawk,  ex- 
tending westward  almost  to  the  smaller  lakes, 
which  practically  formed  a  chain  to  the  great 
inland  sea,  Ontario,  and  brought  one  within 
comparatively  short  distance  of  Erie.  These 
were  ideal  conditions  for  canalization. 

Washington  had  familiarized  himself  with 
the  general  topography  of  the  region,  by  an 


1 8  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

exploration  undertaken  in  company  with  Gov- 
ernor George  Clinton  and  Alexander  Hamilton, 
several  years  before  his  election  to  the  Presi- 
dency. He  thus  became  an  intelligent  and  per- 
sistent advocate  of  the  plans  which  then  began 
to  take  shape  among  the  New  Yorkers.  Wash- 
ington's view  was  not  wholly  the  commercial 
one ;  to  him  it  was  also  a  question  of  binding 
the  people  of  the  Nation  together  for  the  pur- 
pose of  perpetuating  the  Union.  If  the  sturdy 
pioneers  who,  out  of  the  narrow  Indian  trails 
had  hewed  roads  through  the  wilderness,  plant- 
ing settlements  here  and  there,  but  ever  farther 
westward,  were  to  be  deprived  of  adequate 
means  of  communication,  they  would  find  an 
outlet  by  way  of  the  great  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries,  then  in  large  part  in  alien  hands, 
with  thriving  trade  centers  at  St.  Louis  and 
other  points,  and  an  important  port  in  New 
Orleans.  Thus  the  country  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  would  become  a  distinct  political  en- 
tity, estranged  from  the  seaboard  States.  With 
Washington,  as  with  Charlemagne,  artificial 
waterways  represented  links  in  the  bond  which 
should  hold  together  the  empire. 


■^^ 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORIC^;;'.^   "t^^^^ 

But  the  country  was  poor ;  a  devastating  P 
war  had  left  the  people  struggling  to  maintain  >'/ 
existence ;  a  totally  inadequate  political  systeni  y  O^-, 
had  first  to  be  done  away  with  and  a  sound 
constitutional  government  of  united  states 
established.  The  repudiation  of  State  debts 
had  made  it  most  difficult  to  borrow  money 
for  novel  enterprises,  and  increasing  already 
burdensome  taxes  was  impracticable.  As  an 
illustration  we  have  the  experience  of  Christo- 
pher Coles,  an  engineer  of  note,  who  had  made 
a  survey  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  1784;  he 
submitted  plans  for  the  connection  of  the 
Hudson  River  and  Lake  Ontario,  to  the  New 
York  legislature.  He  and  his  associates  were 
tendered  the  profits  of  the  scheme  in  perpe- 
tuity if  they  would  only  carry  it  out;  but  he 
failed  to  enlist  the  requisite  financial  assistance. 
It  is  almost  pathetic  to  read  that  the  legislature 
appropriated  the  munificent  sum  of  $125  to  en- 
able Coles  to  complete  his  surveys. 

Another  survey,  more  comprehensive  in 
character,  was  made  in  1791,  by  direction  of 
the  legislature  through  the  efforts  of  Governor 
George  Clinton.     In  1 792  two  companies  were 


20  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

chartered,  one  to  construct  a  canal  to  connect 
the  Hudson  River  with  Lake  Champlain, 
which,  however,  "fell  by  the  wayside";  the 
other,  the  "  Western  Inland  Navigation  Com- 
pany," to  connect  the  Hudson  and  Lake 
Ontario.  The  State  took  200  shares  of  the 
$25  stock  of  the  company  and  loaned  it  ^15,- 
000  on  mortgage,  for  which  it  later  also  took 
stock.  With  this  support  something  was 
actually  accomplished;  by  the  end  of  1796  the 
company  had  six  miles  of  canal  at  and  about 
Little  Falls,  navigable  by  16-ton  vessels,  to 
facilitate  the  use  of  the  upper  Mohawk;  the 
work  cost  $400,000.  Soon  thereafter  con- 
nection was  made  between  the  Oswego  River 
(flowing  into  Lake  Ontario)  and  Cayuga  and 
Seneca  lakes.  This  initial  canal  work  was 
done  by  William  Weston,  afterwards  Superin- 
tendent of  Canals.  Among  the  most  earnest 
supporters  were  Thomas  Eddy,  the  philanthro- 
pist and  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  the  patroon. 
These  men  saw  in  the  project  for  the  Erie 
waterway  a  means  by  which  New  York  City 
would  obtain  the  commerce  of  the  great  West 
*'  forever  "  without  need  of  fearing  rivalry ;  the 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  21 

City  would  thereby  become  "  the  greatest 
commercial  emporium  of  the  world,  excepting, 
eventually  perhaps,  New  Orleans  or  some  other 
depot  at  the  mouth  of  the  majestic  Mississippi." 
The  thought  that  anything  could  ever  super- 
sede water  transportation  was  evidently  far 
from  their  minds. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  arguments  and  dis- 
cussions and  the  obvious  interest  of  the  State, 
notwithstanding  the  enormous  cost  of  trans- 
portation, estimated  to  have  been  $ioo  per  ton 
from  Buffalo  to  New  York,  many  years  were 
to  pass  before  anything  further  was  done 
toward  a  canal  system.  The  people  who  were 
building  up  the  central  and  western  parts  of 
the  State  felt  the  need  of  better  transit  facil- 
ities. Ohio  was  coming  into  prominence 
as  a  producing  territory  and  a  commercial 
field,  soon  (in  1803)  to  become  one  of  the 
sisterhood  of  States.  Indiana,  Michigan,  Illi- 
nois, and  Wisconsin  were  now  the  outer  ter- 
ritories, but  rapidly  growing.  Here  was  an 
empire  to  be  exploited  commercially.  But  the 
people  of  New  York  City  and  the  southern  end 
of  the  State,  to  whom  the  benefits  to  accrue, 


22  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

naturally  perhaps,  appeared  more  remote,  were 
for  a  long  time  only  mildly  affected  by  the 
agitation.  The  enthusiasm  of  Gouverneur 
Morris,  who  told  them  among  other  things 
that  he  foresaw  the  time  when  ships  would 
"  sail  from  London  through  the  Hudson  River 
to  Lake  Erie"  by  a  splendid  canal,  failed 
to  impress  them  sufificiently.  This  patriotic 
citizen,  then  a  Senator  in  Congress,  was  joined 
by  De  Witt  Clinton,  whose  name  is  associated 
with  New  York's  canal  system  for  all  time.  It 
was  uphill  work;  the  support  of  the  people  of 
the  lower  end  of  the  State  was  necessary,  and 
the  influence  of  the  opposition,  the  "bourbons" 
of  the  period,  among  whom  were  the  leading 
"  sachems  "  of  the  Tammany  Hall  of  that  day, 
was  difficult  to  overcome.  The  expense  of  the 
enterprise,  a  present  bugaboo,  overshadowed 
the  prospect  of  much  greater  future  benefits. 

A  traveler  of  the  period  has  left  us  an  in- 
teresting record  of  the  difficulties  of  transit 
prevailing;  it  took  from  two  to  five  days  to 
reach  Albany  from  New  York,  by  river ;  thence 
overland  to  Schenectady,  17  miles,  to  the 
navigable  part  of  the  Mohawk  River ;  to  Utica, 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  23 

104  miles,  by  sailboats,  with  auxiliary  swing- 
oars  and  poles  to  be  used  in  case  of  a  calm ; 
these  made  1 8  to  20  miles  per  day,  consuming 
the  better  part  of  a  week;  to  Oswego,  114 
miles  further,  took  another  nine  days.  On  the 
Hudson  River  freight  rates  averaged  40  cents 
per  hundredweight;  the  small  canals  already 
referred  to,  charged  $2.25  to  $3  per  ton.  On 
the  Mohawk  the  rate  was  75  cents  per  hun- 
dredweight to  Utica  and  $1.25  on  the  western 
section  from  Utica  to  Oswego,  making  a  total 
of  about  $50  per  ton  from  New  York  to  Os- 
wego. There  was  much  dissatisfaction  at  the 
charges  imposed  by  the  canal  company,  and 
comparatively  large  quantities  of  freight  were 
taken  overland  in  that  section,  owing  to  the 
exorbitant  rates. 

Robert  Fulton's  successful  demonstration  of 
his  steamboat  in  1807,  by  means  of  which  the 
transit  time  to  Albany  was  soon  reduced  to 
30  hours,  tended  to  increase  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  people  "  up-State  "  with  existing  con- 
ditions. Clinton  was  quick  to  seize  upon  this 
as  a  lever  to  influence  public  opinion.  At 
this    time,  also.  President  Jefferson's   plan    to 


24  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

spend  the  accumulated  Federal  surplus  (then 
approximating  $10,000,000)  in  the  construction 
of  roads  and  canals,  a  project  which  had  the 
full  approval  of  Albert  Gallatin  and  the  other 
broad-gauge  members  of  the  Jefferson  party, 
gave  New  Yorkers  hope  that  they  would  re- 
ceive support  from  the  National  Government. 
In  1808  the  New  York  legislature,  at  the 
behest  of  Joshua  Forman  of  Onondaga,  and 
Thomas  R.  Gold  of  Oneida,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  consider  plans  for  a  canal  to  Lake 
Erie,  with  a  view  to  obtaining  aid  from  Con- 
gress by  an  appropriation  to  accomplish  "  that 
great  national  object."  It  was  declared  that 
"while  this  State  would  forbear  to  derogate 
from  the  claims  of  others,  she  felt  warranted  in 
presenting  to  the  Government  of  the  Union  her 
own  territory  as  preeminently  distinguished 
for  commercial  advantage." 

Simeon  De  Witt,  the  Surveyor  General,  was 
directed  to  cause  the  route  suggested  to  be 
accurately  surveyed,  and  the  sum  of  six  hun- 
dred dollars  ($600  !)  was  appropriated  by  the 
legislature  for  the  purpose.  The  survey  dem- 
onstrated    the    complete    availability    of   the 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW  YORK  2$ 

route  which  was  later  adopted.  De  Witt,  who 
was  appointed  Surveyor  General  in  1784,  held 
that  office  continuously  for  fifty  years,  cover- 
ing thus  the  entire  period  of  the  conception, 
birth,  and  first  growth  of  the  canal  system,  to 
the  promotion  of  which  he  gave  his  life 
service. 

It  was  not  until  18 10,  however,  that  a  Canal 
Commission  was  actually  provided  for  by 
the  legislature ;  it  included  besides  Morris, 
Clinton,  and  De  Witt,  William  North,  Thomas 
Eddy,  and  Peter  B.  Porter.  In  1 8 1 1  Robert  Ful- 
ton and  Robert  R.  Livingston  were  added.  A 
thorough  exploration  at  this  time  produced  an 
estimate  of  cost  of  a  canal  to  Lake  Erie  at 
$5,000,000.  Morris  and  Clinton  were  sent  to 
Washington  to  endeavor  to  obtain  support 
from  the  Federal  Government,  but  President 
Madison  was  not  favorable  to  the  use  of 
public  money  for  this  purpose,  and  the  com- 
mittee returned  to  New  York  disappointed. 

The  scope  of  the  canal  enterprise  was 
rightly  considered  national  in  character. 
While  Madison  and  Monroe  were  solicitous 
that  the  canal  be  built,  as  strict  construction- 


26  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

ists  they  believed  that  no  aid  could  be  extended 
without  first  amending  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion. Gouverneur  Morris  urged  that  the  Fed- 
eral Government  should  build  the  canal  and 
its  operation  and  control  should  be  regulated 
by  "  treaty "  between  the  State  and  Nation. 
In  this  proposition  we  see  the  then  conception 
of  "  State  sovereignty,"  and  how  lightly  the 
bonds  of  union  were  regarded  ;  and  also  ob- 
serve that  the  question  of  the  regulation  of 
interstate  commerce  was  early  brought  into 
prominence.  The  "  general  welfare  "  clause  of 
the  organic  law  had  not  yet  been  elaborated. 

The  War  of  1812,  with  its  burdens  and  re- 
sponsibilities, eliminated  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment as  a  possible  builder  of  the  canal. 

The  agitation  was  continued  throughout 
the  State,  especially  by  Clinton,  after  his  defeat 
for  the  Presidency;  and  in  June,  181 2,  the 
legislature  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  Canal 
Commission  to  borrow  money  and  accept 
grants  of  land  preparatory  to  the  beginning 
of  work.  But  borrowing  money  during  the 
war  was  out  of  the  question,  and  the  progress 
of   the  enterprise  halted.     In   18 16,  Governor 


THE  CANAL  SYSTEM   OF  NEW  YORK  2/ 

Tompkins  strongly  urged  that  the  State  pro- 
ceed to  build  the  canal  without  further  delay. 
A  new  Commission  was  created  with  Clinton 
at  its  head,  further  surveys  were  made,  and 
more  elaborate  estimates  of  costs  prepared, 
which  included  connection  with  Lake  Cham- 
plain  as  well  as  with  Lake  Erie.  The  width 
of  the  canal  was  to.be  40  feet  at  surface,  28 
feet  at  bottom,  and  the  depth  4  feet.  The 
estimate  of  cost  was  $5,442,813.  On  April 
15,  18 1 7,  the  legislature  terminated  the  long 
speculation  by  actually  authorizing  the  con- 
struction of  the  canal,  creating  a  Canal  Board 
consisting  of  all  the  executive  State  officers 
except  the  Governor,  which  was  given  power 
to  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  State. 
The  canal  fund  created  was  to  be  under  their 
charge.  The  Clinton  Commission  was  con- 
tinued, charged  with  the  duty  of  construction, 
operation,  and  maintenance.  This  division  of 
authority  soon  caused  difficulties  which  resulted 
in  vesting  the  power  of  both  in  a  differently 
constituted  board,  created  in  1826. 

The  patronage  of  the  canal  appealed  to  the 
selfishness   of   men   and    involved   in    its  con- 


38  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

struction  the  vicissitudes  of  party  politics, 
engendering  the  fiercest  political  and  personal 
animosities.  Clinton  was  not  above  using  the 
patronage  to  regain  and  promote  his  political 
prestige,  but  above  all  things  he  devoted  his 
energies  to  the  success  of  the  canal.  He 
boldly  made  it  the  issue  in  the  gubernatorial 
campaign  of  1817;  he  compelled  his  nomina- 
tion for  the  Governorship  and  defeated  his 
opponent,  Peter  B.  Porter,  one  of  his  col- 
leagues on  the  Canal  Commission  of  18 10, 
by  the  decisive  total  of  43,310  votes  against 
1479,  a  most  extraordinary  expression  of  public 
opinion  and  confidence. 

His  inauguration  took  place  on  July  i, 
181 7,  and  three  days  later,  on  the  Nation's 
chief  holiday,  he  had  the  supreme  satisfaction 
of  breaking  ground  for  the  canal  at  Rome, 
then  a  promising  village  on  the  Mohawk  River 
(formerly  Fort  Stanwix),  amid  great  ceremony 
and  jubilation.  Thus,  after  thirty  years  from 
the  date  when  his  uncle,  George  Clinton,  had 
urged  the  matter  on  the  people,  they  finally, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  nephew  of  the 
first    Governor,    seriously   began    work.      The 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF  NEW  Y0l6c     '^,''^29^ 

little  canals  of  the  Western  Inland  Navigation  ^^^o    "^ 
Company,  already  referred  to,  were  bought  iof  ^     h.  ^ 
$152,718;    extension    was    pushed   vigorously,   I'* V V^ 
and   by   October,    1819,   the   section   between 
Rome  and  Utica,  15  miles,  was  open  to  navi- 
gation.    In  November  of  the  same  year  boats 
from  the    Hudson    River    passed    into     Lake 
Champlain ;    in    1820   the    Erie    reached    the 
Seneca  River,  and  it  was  confidently  reported 
that  it  would  be  completed  by  1823.     In  this 
Clinton    was,   however,  disappointed,    and    his 
opponents  made  the  most  of  the  delay. 

The  control  of  the,  for  that  day,  vast  patron- 
age of  the  canal,  intensified  political  rancor 
and  gave  to  politics  a  vehemence  and  virulence 
unprecedented.  Clinton  was  charged  with 
everything  from  bankrupting  the  State  to 
plotting  secession  of  New  York  from  the 
Union.  Although  reelected  Governor  in 
1820,  over  Tompkins,  who  now  opposed  the 
canal,  his  majority  was  so  slender  and  his  hold 
upon  the  people  so  precarious  during  the 
second  term,  that  he  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  the  contest  for  a  third  nomination  in 
1822.     In  April,  1824,  he  was  removed  from 


30  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

the  position  of  Canal  Commissioner,  which  he 
had  held  continuously  from  the  creation  of 
the  original  Commission  in  1810,  even  while 
Governor.  This  humiliation,  believed  at  the 
time  to  be  his  political  deathblow,  was  accom- 
plished by  the  overwhelming  vote  of  the 
legislature,  dominated  by  Van  Buren,  William 
L.  Marcy,  Silas  Wright,  and  their  associates, 
who  had  now  become  all-powerful  as  the 
"  Albany  Regency." 

But,  after  all,  the  people  wanted  the  canal ; 
the  new  regime  was  not  apparently  making 
satisfactory  progress.  Clinton  took  advantage 
of  the  situation,  accepted  a  nomination  for  the 
Governorship  in  1824,  and  in  the  fall  of  that 
year,  scarcely  six  months  after  his  humiliation, 
he  was  elected  by  a  vote  of  103,452  against 
S7»093.  With  Clinton  again  in  the  harness, 
the  canal  work  progressed  at  a  lively  pace ; 
and  again  he  experienced  the  satisfaction  of 
presiding  over  the  destinies  of  the  State 
officially  when,  on  October  26,  1825,  the  first 
boat  to  make  the  trip  through  the  finished 
Erie  Canal  left  Buffalo,  with  the  Governor, 
Stephen     Van    Rensselaer,    Joshua    Forman, 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM    OF   NEW   YORK  31 

Chancellor  Livingston,  William  L.  Stone,  and 
Thurlow  Weed  among  those  on  board ;  con- 
spicuous by  their  absence  were  the  members 
of  the  Albany  Regency. 

The  trip  of  the  "  Seneca  Chief,"  as  the 
canal  boat  was  named,  was  probably  the  most 
thoroughly  celebrated  event  New  York  State 
has  ever  experienced.  All  along  the  route  was 
a  jubilant  people,  making  it  a  continuous  holi- 
day parade ;  ringing  of  bells  and  booming  of 
cannon  greeted  it  everywhere ;  and  Clinton 
was  the  hero  of  the  fortnight.  On  November 
4,  the  boat,  escorted  from  Albany  by  a  fleet 
of  steamers,  arrived  in  New  York  City,  where 
civic,  military,  and  naval  parades  followed, 
accompanied  by  the  most  extravagant  demon- 
strations of  popular  enthusiasm.  A  memorial 
medal  was  struck  by  the  municipal  authorities, 
the  face  of  which  was  subsequently  adopted  as 
the  seal  of  the  Canal  Department.  Two  kegs 
of  water  from  Lake  Erie  had  been  brought 
along,  and  one  of  these  was  taken  to  Sandy 
Hook  and  the  water  ceremoniously  poured  into 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  —  to  render  realistic  one 
of  the  prophecies  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  who 


32  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

had  in  the  meantime  passed  away ;  the  con- 
tents of  the  other  keg  were  bottled  as  memen- 
tos, and  one  of  these  bottles  was  presented  to 
Lafayette,  who  had  a  short  time  before  been 
the  guest  of  the  City.  An  enthusiastic  citizen 
had  procured  bottles  of  water  from  the  Nile, 
the  Ganges,  the  Indus,  the  Thames,  the  Seine, 
the  Rhine,  the  Mississippi,  the  Columbia,  the 
Orinoco,  and  the  La  Plata,  all  of  which  were 
also,  with  proper  ceremony,  emptied  into  the 
Atlantic,  after  those  of  the  Erie  had  been 
mingled  with  its  brine.  This  mingling  of 
waters  typified  the  ambitious  faith  of  the 
builders  that  the  commerce  of  the  canal  system 
was  bound  to  commingle  with  and  be  enlarged 
by  the  commerce  of  all  portions  of  the  world. 

The  festivities  lasted  until  the  night  of 
November  7,  concluding  with  a  grand  ball. 
It  is  recorded  that  the  news  of  the  opening 
of  the  Grand  Canal,  as  it  was  called  for  many 
years,  was  sent  from  Buffalo  to  Sandy  Hook, 
over  500  miles,  in  81  minutes,  by  means  of 
booming  cannon  placed  at  proper  distances 
along  the  line.  Our  forbears,  rejoicing  over 
this    great     achievement     in     transportation, 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF  NEW   YORK  33 

sought  to  hasten  the  news  of  the  canal's 
opening  by  booming  cannon  as  fast  as  sound 
travels.  They  little  dreamed  that  in  less  than 
a  century  Buffalo  and  New  York  would 
converse  with  the  same  ease  and  certainty  as 
persons  seated  face  to  face. 

II 

The  Period  of  Development 

Thus  "  Clinton's  Ditch,"  as  his  opponents 
in  politics  contemptuously  called  it,  was  a  fixed 
fact,  notwithstanding  ex-Governor  (then  Vice 
President)  Tompkins's  declaration  a  short  time 
before,  that  it  was  a  "chimerical  project." 
There  were  not  a  few  men  of  prominence  who 
still  regarded  it  as  a  public  work  undertaken 
many  years  too  soon.  Its  cost  had  exceeded 
the  estimates ;  for  when,  after  some  years,  the 
"  finishing  touches "  had  been  actually  com- 
pleted, the  total  amounted  to  $7,143,789,  or 
over  $2,000,000  more  than  the  highest  ante- 
rior estimate.  But  it  began  to  yield  revenue 
before  its  completion,  and  in  fact  had  turned 
into  the  treasury  more  in  tolls  than  the  actual 


34  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

cost,  before  that  account  was  closed  in  1836, 
thus  justifying  the  faith  of  its  advocates  in  a 
much  greater  measure  than  even  they  had 
anticipated. 

In  1826  CHnton  was  elected  Governor  for 
the  fourth  time,  and  died  in  office  in  1828. 
Few,  if  any,  men  have,  within  the  borders  of 
a  single  State  of  our  Union,  achieved  as  great 
a  work  as  fell  to  De  Witt  Clinton ;  few  have 
perhaps  had  opportunities  equal  to  those  which 
came  his  way ;  but  after  all,  it  was  his  genius 
and  constant  devotion  to  the  purpose  in  view, 
that  led  him  to  seize  these  opportunities  and 
make  the  most  of  them,  despite  rather  tactless 
political  methods  which  occasionally  created 
obstacles.  Few  men  in  public  life  suffered 
such  violent  and  factious  opposition,  and  over- 
came them  by  forcing  upon  the  minds  of  the 
people  the  measures  which  would  best  serve 
them.  It  cannot  be  said  that  his  labors  were 
ignored,  for  he  was  given  high  station ;  but 
it  nevertheless  remained  for  the  future  to  fully 
appreciate  the  great  merits  of  his  efforts  for 
the  general  welfare.  Not  the  least  of  the 
testimonials  to  his  achievements  is  the  statue 


THE  CANAL   SYSTEM    OF   NEW   YORK  35 

which  adorns  the  most  prominent  place  in 
the  front  of  the  magnificent  home  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  in  the  City  of  New 
York. 

The  canal  system  thus  completed,  near  the 
end  of  1825,  included  only  the  Erie  and  the 
Champlain ;  the  former,  352  miles  in  length  with 
9  miles  of  adjuncts,  the  latter  8i  miles,  includ- 
ing feeders.  Together  they  had  cost  the  State 
the  sum  of  $9,048,963 ;  and  to  the  end  of  1837 
additional  construction  work  found  necessary 
cost  $928,981  more,  giving  a  total  during  this 
first  period  of  nearly  $10,000,000.  Beginning 
with  the  modest  revenue  of  $5436  in  182 1, 
the  tolls  produced  annually  increasing  sums, 
the  total  for  1825  being  $566,112 ;  by  1830  the 
$1,000,000  mark  was  passed,  and  the  total  rev- 
enues to  the  end  of  1837  aggregated  over 
$15,000,000,  thus  more  then  repaying  the  origi- 
nal outlay,  after  providing  for  operating  ex- 
penses. No  reports  of  tonnage  carried  were 
made  in  the  earlier  years,  but  judging  by  the 
tolls  the  quantity  must  have  reached  over  1,000,- 
000  tons  annually  for  several  years  before  1836, 
when    a    tonnage    of    1,310,000    is    recorded. 


36  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

Freight  payments  for  the  period  ending  with 
1837  also  exceeded  a  total  of  $15,000,000. 
Rates  were  reduced  very  largely;  the  charge 
from  Buffalo  to  Albany  was  still  $22  in  1824; 
in  1835  it  was  down  to  about  $4.  The  prom- 
ised diversion  of  traffic  to  New  York  was 
being  realized ;  the  signal  success  of  the  under- 
taking led  to  other  similar  projects,  which  the 
people  for  a  time  gladly  favored.  In  1825  work 
was  begun  on  a  canal  38  miles  long,  connecting 
the  Erie  with  Lake  Ontario  at  Oswego,  and 
also  on  the  Cayuga  and  Seneca,  23  miles  in 
length;  in  1830  the  Chemung,  in  1831  the 
Crooked  Lake,  in  1833  the  Chenango,  and  in 
1837  the  Black  River  and  Genesee  Valley 
canals  were  begun ;  in  the  following  decade 
lesser  works  were  provided  for,  making  in  all  a 
system  of  artificial  waterways  over  960  miles  in 
length.  State  aid  to  the  amount  of  $800,000 
was  also  extended  to  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Company,  which  had  a  canal  108  miles  long, 
partly  in  Pennsylvania,  which  was  abandoned 
in  1898. 

It  soon   became  obvious   that  the   carrying 
capacity  of  the  Erie  Canal  was  not  equal  to  the 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  37 

commercial  demands.  It  could  only  float  boats 
not  exceeding  80  feet  long  by  1 5  feet  wide  and 
3J  feet  draught,  the  maximum  burthen  being 
75  tons.  The  employment  of  larger  vessels 
would  enable  the  State  to  reap  greater  advan- 
tage from  the  enormous  trade  which  was  now 
rapidly  developing  in  the  West  and  Northwest ; 
the  agitation  for  enlargement  became  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  induce  the  legislature,  by  an 
Act  of  May  11,  1835,  to  authorize  this  work, 
so  as  to  accommodate  vessels  of  200  tons,  and 
by  1837  it  was  being  vigorously  pushed.  The 
estimate  of  cost  of  enlargement  varied  as  the 
work  progressed,  ranging  from  $12,500,000  to 
$30,000,000.  This  was  an  unprecedented  sum 
to  be  placed  under  the  control  of  any  party 
administration.  The  Albany  Regency,  then 
all-powerful,  had  adopted  the  political  tenet  of 
Marcy,  "  To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 
Extravagance  and  waste  were  clearly  shown 
to  have  governed  in  the  execution  of  the  work, 
and  coming  as  it  did  immediately  after  the 
paralyzing  crisis  of  1837,  it  seemed  for  a  time 
as  if  the  credit  of  the  State  would  be  seriously 
compromised.     It  was  impossible  to  promptly 


38  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

pay  the  cost  of  the  work,  and  it  was  therefore 
suspended  by  order  of  the  legislature,  but  not 
until  the  expenditure  had  exceeded  $i2,cx)0,- 
ooo  without  having  produced  practical  results. 
Suspension  of  work  added  to  the  waste  which 
bad  management  and  extravagance  had  caused. 
What  may,  perhaps,  be  regarded  as  a  much 
greater  evil  than  this  money  loss,  was  the 
serious  lowering  of  political  morals  engendered 
by  the  lavish  disbursement  of  public  money 
shown  by  a  legislative  investigation  in  1846. 
The  "  canal  ring "  was  born,  and  what  has 
since  been  concisely  termed  "graft,"  fastened 
itself  upon  the  body  politic  so  firmly,  that  for 
two  generations  every  endeavor  to  do  anything 
for  the  canal  system  has  encountered  distrust 
and  hesitation.  The  people  are  compelled  to 
be  on  guard  against  the  insidious  influences  of 
the  plunder  that  the  business  offers  to  unscru- 
pulous jobbers  and  politicians. 

During  this  period  another  factor  affecting 
the  future  of  the  canals  first  became  mani- 
fest ;  steam  railroad  transportation  had  been  in- 
vented. In  1 83 1,  the  first  line,  the  Mohawk 
and  Hudson  Railroad,  was  opened  from  Albany 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YO^  ,     rgia 

to  Schenectady,  a  distance  of  1 7  mife8^>  Tfie,  'Vx 
Erie   Railway  was  projected,  and  in   1836  re-^,V     Q 
ceived  State  aid  (for  the  benefit  of  the  "  south-  ■      '^. 
ern  tier  counties")  to  the  amount  of  $3,000,000.  -.^x   '/^ 
The  company  failed  in  the  troublesome  years 
after    1837,    and    only   part    of   the    line   from 
Piermont  westward  was  ready  for  use  in  1841, 
by  which  time  Albany  and  Buffalo  had  been 
connected  by  rail.     In  the  same  year  the  Hud- 
son River  Railroad  from  New  York  to  Albany 
was  completed,  thus  giving  a  primitive  sort  of 
through  rail  line  from  the  lakes   to  the  sea- 
board.    The  Erie  finally  reached    Buffalo   in 
1851. 

The  record  of  operations  of  the  canals  from 
1838  to  1847  showed  no  effect  from  railway 
competition.  They  had  transferred  in  the 
decade  17,300,000  tons  of  freight  valued  at 
$893,000,000,  of  which  more  than  half — 9,500,- 
000  tons, — of  the  value  of  $348,000,000,  was 
freight  carried  through  to  New  York  City. 
The  State  received  in  tolls  $22,200,000  (a 
general  average  of  $1.28  per  ton  carried),  and 
freighters  collected  $22,600,000  (an  average, 
without  regard  to  distance,  of  $1.30^  per  ton). 


40  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

The  actual  rate  for  down  freight  from  Buffalo 
to  Albany  fell  as  low  as  $2.65;  tolls  were 
$3.28;  up  freight,  always  higher,  ranged  from 
$9-53  to  $5,  and  tolls  were  $6.57  per  ton. 
The  time  required  for  the  transit  of  through 
freight  was  10  days;  passengers  going  by 
light,  swift  "packet"  boats  made  the  trip  in 
si  days. 

In  1846  there  was  a  revision  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  State,  in  which  the  canals  re- 
ceived considerable  attention.  A  better  sys- 
tem of  control  was  provided  for,  a  definite 
sinking  fund  to  pay  off  the  canal  debt  was 
established,  and  a  portion  of  the  revenues 
from  tolls  was  to  be  applied  for  current  State 
purposes.  A  general  provision  prohibited  in- 
curring debts  in  excess  of  $1,000,000,  without 
the  people's  consent,  and  bonds  issued  were 
to  be  repayable  in  eighteen  years.  The  con- 
stitution also  forbade  the  sale  of  any  of  the 
canals  for  all  time.  There  was  an  adjustment 
of  accounts  between  the  State  and  the  canals 
up  to  that  date,  which  shows  that  the  general 
revenues  of  the  State  had  contributed  $7,924,- 
520  to  the  canals,  including  $320,518  derived 


THE  CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  41 

from  sales  of  lands,  partly  those  donated  to 
the  canals;  there  had  been  repaid  the  State 
on  this  account  $2,537,603,  leaving  a  balance 
of  $5,386,917.  This  represented  the  net  in- 
vestment in  the  canals  by  the  State,  in  1846. 
The  specific  canal  debt  was  at  this  time 
slightly  under  $17,000,000. 

The  agitation  for  enlargement  of  the  canal 
was  resumed,  and  with  the  feeling  that  the 
constitutional  provisions  rendered  it  reasonably 
safe  to  make  the  great  expenditures  required, 
without  waste,  the  assent  of  the  legislature 
was  given.  By  1849  it  was  possible  to  put 
into  use  vessels  of  100  tons  burthen,  and  by 
1853,  after  an  expenditure  of  about  $5,000,000, 
vessels  of  200  tons  were  actually  in  use  on 
the  Erie.  But  results  were  coming  too  slowly; 
accordingly  in  1854  there  was  submitted  to 
the  people  a  plan  under  which  larger  debts 
could  be  incurred  for  canal  purposes,  and  the 
people  voted  by  185,771  to  60,526  to  expedite 
the  work.  In  the  six  years  following  over 
$12,500,000  was  spent  in  construction,  and  by 
1862  the  work  of  enlargement  was  considered 
complete.     Thus,   after   27   years  of  agitation 


42  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

and  a  total  expense  of  over  $33,000,000,  the 
Erie  Canal  was  70  feet  wide  at  surface,  52  feet 
at  bottom,  and  7  feet  deep,  enabling  vessels 
with  6  feet  draught,  of  a  tonnage  of  240  tons, 
to  navigate  it  conveniently.  This  increase  of 
capacity  meant  a  maximum  boat  load  of  8000 
bushels  of  wheat,  compared  with  1000  bushels 
in  the  primitive  stage  and  2500  bushels  from 
1830  to  1850.  The  money  spent  was  not 
all  borrowed ;  the  canal  revenues  helped  very 
largely  to  meet  the  expenditures.  Thus,  to 
the  end  of  1862,  the  total  cost  of  construc- 
tion and  enlargement  for  the  whole  system 
aggregated  $61,000,000;  the  enlargement  of 
the  Erie  had  cost  $33,000,000;  the  Erie  and 
Champlain  had  cost  prior  thereto  about  $10,- 
000,000,  and  the  lesser  works  $18,000,000. 
The  canal  debt  reached  its  maximum  in  i860, 
when  the  amount  outstanding  was  $27,107,000, 
or  about  $20,000,000  more  than  it  was  at  the 
beginning  of  1835,  when  enlargement  work 
began.  The  net  revenues  of  the  system  had 
been  in  excess  of  $73,000,000,  and  the  di- 
rect payments  by  the  State  for  canals  had 
been   exceeded   by   the    amounts    contributed 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  43 

from  tolls  to  the  general  State  funds  under 
the  constitutional  provision  of  1846, — some 
$8,500,000.  During  the  period  from  1846 
to  1862  the  redemptions  of  debt  (paying  off 
the  old  bonds  as  they  matured)  amounted  to 
about  $25,000,000,  and  the  new  issues  were 
$28,000,000.  It  would  appear,  therefore,  that 
the  canals  paid  fully  $13,000,000  of  the  sum 
spent  for  enlargement.  It  should  be  stated 
that  a  rapid  reduction  of  the  debt  took  place 
after  construction  expenses  ceased;  thus  by 
1867  the  debt  was  only  $15,700,000;  by  1869 
it  was  down  to  $12,000,000;  thereafter  liqui- 
dation was  slower,  as  the  bonds  had  not 
matured. 

The  effect  of  the  enlargement  of  the  canal 
was  immediately  shown  in  the  increase  of 
business;  for  in  the  decade  from  1848  to  1857 
the  total  freight  carried  was  36,100,000  tons, 
considerably  more  than  double  the  quantity 
transferred  in  the  preceding  ten-year  period ; 
the  value  of  the  freight  rose  in  even  greater 
ratio,  making  a  total  of  $1,765,000,000.  Of 
this  total  $624,000,000  of  values,  represented 
by    20,600,000    tons,  was   tide   water    freight, 


44  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

carried  down  to  New  York  City.  The  State 
received  $29,800,000  in  tolls,  although  the 
rates  had  been  lowered;  the  average  per  ton 
was  82^^.  Freight  charges  yielded  the  boat 
owners  $30,300,000,  thus  giving  an  average 
per  ton  slightly  higher  than  the  tolls  (nearly 
84^),  but  nevertheless  46^^  per  ton  less  than 
in  the  previous  decade.  Actual  charges  for 
down  freight  had  fallen  to  $2.67  in  1857; 
for  transfer  the  other  way  (from  Albany  to 
Buffalo)  the  rate  was  as  low  as  $2.13  per 
ton.  The  cost  of  maintenance  and  operation 
of  the  canals  increased  with  the  enlargement, 
in  some  respects  out  of  proportion;  in  1847 
the  ratio  was  18.52%  of  the  revenue;  during 
the  decade  under  review  it  averaged  30.52%, 
having  been  as  high  as  41.51%  in  1854.  It 
was  in  the  last-named  year  that  the  legisla- 
ture provided  for  a  "contract  board"  which 
had  charge  of  the  entire  subject  of  new  work 
and  repairs.  The  result  was  at  first  fairly 
satisfactory,  but  there  were,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  serious  criticisms,  fully  warranted,  against 
this  system,  when  laxity  of  supervision  inter- 
vened. 


THE  CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  45 

A  number  of  factors  affected  the  business 
of  the  canals  in  the  decade  following  1857; 
the  consequence  of  the  financial  crisis  of  that 
year  was  one  of  the  untoward  elements;  the 
active  competition  of  railways,  now  first  seri- 
ously felt,  was  another.  The  effects  of  these 
conditions  were  reflected  in  the  diminished 
traffic,  and  the  freighters  clamored  for  a  fur- 
ther reduction  of  tolls,  which  was  accorded. 
Upon  the  other  hand,  after  i860,  the  Civil 
War  closed  operations  via  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  such  an  abundance  of  freight  was 
offered  that  the  canals  did  not  fail  to  ben- 
efit very  largely  by  the  circumstance,  as 
well  as  the  railways.  Thus  the  total  carriage 
of  freight  by  canals  in  this  decade  reached 
48,800,000  tons,  valued  at  $2,095,000,000,  of 
which  27,400,000  tons  was  through  freight, 
somewhat  less  in  proportion  than  formerly^ 
The  value  of  the  latter  was  $1,011,000,000. 
The  State  received  an  average  of  nearly  76^ 
per  ton  in  tolls,  in  all  $37,000,000,  and  freight- 
ers were  paid  $45,900,000,  being  about  94^ 
per  ton,  —  quite  an  increase  over  the  average 
rate   in   the   preceding  decade,  partly  due  to 


46 


ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 


the  reduction  of  tolls.  The  charge  from  Buf- 
falo to  Albany,  at  first  down  to  $2.03,  ranged 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  period  about 
$2.50  per  ton ;  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  the 
rail  competition  was  seriously  felt ;  return  car- 
goes were  taken  in  the  earlier  years  at  a  rate 
as  low  as  $1.21,  and  rose  only  to  about  $1.50 
per  ton.  The  maintenance  and  operation  cost 
was  again  about  30%. 

Statistics  relating  to  railway  traffic  are  avail- 
able for  this  and  subsequent  periods.  The 
total  freight  carried  by  the  New  York  Central 
and  Erie  railways,  and  the  ton  mileage  of  the 
railways  and  canals,  are  shown  in  the  following 
comparative  table :  — 


Railways 
Tons 

Per 
Cent 

of 
Total 

Ton  Mileage 

Per 
Cent 

by 
Rail 

Years 

Railways 

Canals  and 
River 

1853-1857 
1858-1862 
I 863-1 867 

7,700,000 

12,500,000 
23,200,000 

27.9 
36.0 
46.6 

1,344,000,000 
2,353,000,000 
4,156,000,000 

4,617,000,000 
5,899,000,000 
6,839,000,000 

22.5 
28.5 

37-8 

Other  railway  companies  were  also  entering 
the  field  and  becoming  important  competitors. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  railways 
profited  very  largely  from  the  closure,  by  the 


THE  CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  47 

Civil  War,  of  southern  outlets  for  the  com- 
merce of  the  Western  States.  The  canals  also 
benefited,  but  there  were  clear  indications  that 
the  land  lines  were  gaining  in  greater  propor- 
tion. There  was  still  an  advantage  on  the 
side  of  the  canals  in  the  lower  classes  of 
freight  for  the  long-haul,  as  shown  by  the  ton- 
mile  returns,  but  this  advantage  was  destined 
also  to  be  lost  to  them  later,  particularly  after 
the  New  York  Central  and  the  Hudson  River 
railroads  were  consolidated  in  1869.  This  was 
obviously  the  time  for  the  friends  of  the  canal 
system  to  demand  further  improvements. 

Another  constitutional  convention  was  held 
in  the  year  1867,  and  much  attention  given 
to  the  canals.  But  the  convention  recommen- 
dations in  general  were  upon  partisan  lines,  and 
were  emphatically  rejected  by  the  popular  vote. 
The  discussion  gives  us  some  interesting  in- 
formation. Thus,  while  it  was  well  known 
that  the  canals  had  been  yielding  handsome 
revenues,  nevertheless  the  debt  and  the  interest 
thereon  were  considered  a  burden.  Were  in- 
terest payments  also  reckoned,  claimed  the 
short-sighted  ones,  the  canal  system  would  be 


48  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

shown  to  have  been  very  costly.  In  response 
data  were  furnished  showing  the  total  cost  to 
1867,  with  interest  thereon  at  7%,  the  legal 
rate  at  the  time;  the  expense  for  operation, 
maintenance,  and  repairs,  likewise  with  interest, 
and,  upon  the  other  hand,  the  total  revenues 
and  the  interest  which  these  might  have  earned 
at  the  same  rate ;  with  the  result  showing  that 
the  State  had  given  less  than  $7,500,000  more 
than  it  received.     The  figures  follow: — 

Cost  of  construction 

and  improvement  $  64,7 1 0,837  ;  interest  thereon      $  93>736,65  5 
Cost    of   operation, 
maintenance,  and 

repairs 24,377,114;  interest  thereon         27,268,895 

Total  outgo  .  .  $89,087,951  ;  interest  thereon    $121,005,550 
Aggregate  cost,  with  interest  thereon     $210,093,502 
Revenues  received,  with  interest  thereon  202,619,510 
Apparent  excess  of  cost $  7j473>992 

It  was  further  shown  that  Erie  and  Champlain 
canals  had  a  credit  balance  of  $38,455,560  upon 
this  basis,  and  that  the  others  produced  a  debit 
balance  of  $45,965,940. 

The  "  plant  "  of  the  system  had  thus  cost 
actually  less  than  $65,000,000 ;  but  the  railways 
of  the  State  had,  up  to  1850,  invested  in  con- 
struction and  equipment  fully  $60,000,000;  by 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  49 

i860  this  sum  had  been  doubled;  by  1870 
practically  quadrupled.  The  canals  had  for 
some  years  been  receiving  annually  less  than 
$1,000,000  for  construction  and  repairs,  whereas 
the  railways  were  adopting  every  means  offered 
to  increase  their  efificiency,  to  enlarge  their 
hauling  capacity,  to  reduce  the  cost  of  the 
service.  Thus  real  competition  soon  became 
out  of  the  question. 

Ill 

The  Present  Conditions 

The  blindness  to  their  own  interests  on  the 
part  of  the  people,  by  neglecting  the  canals, 
was  due  chiefly  to  the  lack  of  adequate  lead- 
ership among  the  public  men ;  the  railway 
interests  were  doubtless  influential  in  prevent- 
ing the  State  from  keeping  the  canals  in  a 
proper  state  of  efliciency.  This  apathetic 
condition  continued,  and  nothing  of  real 
consequence  was  done  until  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twentieth  century;  only  ineffectual 
attempts  to  provide  remedies  were  made  in  the 
interval. 


50  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

Yet  there  are  some  matters  worthy  of  record 
occurring  during  the  decade  from  1868  to  1877. 
The  contract  system  of  doing  the  canal  work 
was  thoroughly  overhauled ;  a  legislative  com- 
mittee of  1867  confirmed  the  general  belief 
that  the  operations  of  the  "  canal  ring "  had 
caused  great  waste;  a  canal  convention  in  1870 
denounced  the  practices  under  the  system  in 
no  uncertain  language,  demanding  the  prose- 
cution of  all  persons  who  had  fraudulently 
obtained  public  money  thereunder.  But  there 
prevailed  an  era  of  general  extravagance  and 
plundering  of  the  State  treasury;  and  the 
ringleaders  were  so  firmly  intrenched  in  power 
that  they  defied  all  ordinary  attacks.  The 
notorious  Tweed  was  one  of  the  chief  charac- 
ters in  the  lower  ranks  of  the  new  Albany 
Regency;  Governor  Hoffman  did  not  escape 
censure  for  his  inability  or  unwillingness  to 
break  the  ring.  Under  his  successor,  Gov- 
ernor Dix,  some  efforts  were  made  in  that 
direction;  a  State  commission  was  appointed 
to  suggest  remedies,  and  some  prosecutions 
were  begun ;  but  it  was  left  to  Samuel  J. 
Tilden,  who  became  Governor  in   1875,  to  put 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW  YORK  51 

the  wheels  in  motion  energetically.  He  had 
investigated  and  thoroughly  mastered  existing 
conditions,  and  devoted  his  great  ability  and 
all  the  influence  of  his  office  to  uprooting 
the  evils  and  safeguarding  the  future.  Many 
officials  lost  their  positions,  many  were  pilloried 
before  the  public  judgment  and  suffered  lasting 
disgrace ;  but  few  criminals  were  convicted, 
and  none  of  the  public  money  diverted  was  re- 
covered, so  wide  were  the  ramifications  of  the 
"  ring,"  and  so  great  its  power.  To  illustrate 
the  extravagance,  the  record  showed,  for  the 
five  years  ending  1874,  an  expenditure  for 
operation  and  maintenance  of  the  canals, 
exclusive  of  "extra  repairs,"  of  $9,202,000 
out  of  $15,058,000  receipts,  —  or  more  than 
61  %. 

In  1874,  coincidently  with  Tilden's  election, 
the  people  adopted  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment prohibiting  the  use  of  the  sinking  funds 
for  any  other  purposes  than  those  of  extin- 
guishing the  debts  (they  had  been  trenched 
upon  by  the  extravagance);  claims  against 
the  State  were  to  be  barred  by  limitation, 
just    as    ordinary    claims    are.     The   purpose 


52  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

was  to  more  closely  scrutinize  the  entire  canal 
business. 

In  the  government  of  New  York  City,  as 
well  as  in  various  departments  of  the  State 
government,  boards  and  commissions  had 
been  tried  with  unsatisfactory  results.  The 
people  came  to  believe  that  in  order  to  concen- 
trate responsibility,  it  is  necessary  to  concentrate 
power.  Divided  responsibility  permitted  dere- 
lict public  oflficials  to  escape  punishment,  and  the 
policy  of  placing  departments  under  the  control 
of  a  single  responsible  head  was  inaugurated. 
Accordingly,  in  1876,  another  constitutional 
amendment  provided  for  a  Superintendent  of 
Public  Works  in  the  place  of  the  "  contract 
board  "  and  canal  commissioners.  This  officer 
was  charged  with  the  supervision  of  navigation 
and  repairs  and  was  a  member  of  the  Canal 
Board.  In  order  to  make  it  more  impressive, 
apparently,  the  prohibition  against  sales  of  the 
canal  property  was  repeated  in  the  amendment. 
It  was,  however,  deemed  judicious  to  abandon 
some  of  the  canals  which  had  proved  too  ex- 
pensive ;  after  1878  the  only  ones  operated 
were  the  Erie,  Champlain,  Oswego,  Cayuga  and 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW^J^   H<S3 

.    <>.   <>     -^^^ 

Seneca,  and  Black  River.  Notwithstanding  iin- '  >. 
toward  conditions  the  business  of  the  canals  for  ^  O^^^ 
the  decade  1868- 1877  proved  the  largest  in  their  ''J?^ 
history,  freight  carried  having  aggregated  57,^.^  "O 
700,000  tons,  valued  at  $2 ,032,000,000,  showing 
a  decline  in  average  values.  Of  this  fully  31,- 
200,000  tons,  of  the  value  of  $1,047,000,000,  was 
downward  tide  water  freight.  But  the  railways 
carried  over  104,000,000  tons  during  the  period, 
showing  that  relatively  the  canals  were  losing 
ground.  Tolls  had  again  been  lowered  after 
the  financial  crisis  of  1873,  and  hence  aggre- 
gated only  $26,200,000,  an  average  of  44.5^ 
per  ton;  freight  rates  were  well  maintained, 
the  average  per  ton  being  86^  and  the  total 
paid  $50,200,000;  the  down-freight  rate  (Buf- 
falo to  Albany)  fell  as  low  as  $1.52  at  the 
end  of  the  period,  and  up  freight  was  only  3^ 
per  ton  higher.  The  result  of  the  railway  com- 
petition in  the  latter  half  of  the  decade  placed 
their  ton  mileage  far  ahead  of  that  of  the  canals, 
so  that  for  the  period  the  figures  were  19,576,- 
000,000  ton  miles  for  the  New  York  Central  and 
Erie  lines,  against  13,680,000,000  for  water 
lines,  a  ratio  58.8%  for  the  railways,  compared 


54  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

with  33.8%  in  the  previous  decade.  A  number 
of  devices  to  increase  facilities  on  the  canals 
were  experimented  with  at  this  time,  partic- 
ularly steam  towage,  but  without  practical 
results. 

The  decline  of  the  canal  business  actually 
began  in  1874  and  despite  the  lowering  of 
tolls.  The  record  year  for  tonnage  was  1872, 
when  6,673,570  tons  were  moved  ;  the  record 
year  for  values  was  1868,  when  a  total  of 
$305,301,920  was  reached. 

A  movement  was  now  inaugurated  to  abolish 
all  tolls,  and  so  popular  did  it  prove  that  the 
legislature  submitted  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment for  this  purpose  to  the  people  in  Novem- 
ber, 1882.  It  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  486,106 
against  163,151.  This  measure  provided  that 
the  expenses  of  operation  and  maintenance 
be  borne  by  the  general  revenues  of  the 
State,  and  authorized  borrowing  to  cover  de- 
ficiencies. 

When  tolls  were  abolished  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  New  York  canal  system  made  a 
charge  upon  the  taxpayers,  the  natural  impulse 
toward   economy  on  the  part  of   all,  plus  the 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  55 

selfish  but  shortsighted  policy  of  opposition 
on  the  part  of  localities  not  adjacent  to  the 
canals,  reenforced  by  the  opposition  from  com- 
peting railways  ably  and  shrewdly  administered 
by  railway  managers,  rendered  the  future  of 
the  canals  most  precarious.  Their  proper 
maintenance  was  jeopardized  by  meager  ap- 
propriations and  all  enlargement  of  capacity 
rendered  impossible  save  by  constitutional 
amendment.  An  object  lesson  was  required 
to  teach  the  public  that  the  canals,  in  their 
then  condition,  hedged  in  and  crippled  by 
restrictive  constitutional  provisions,  must  in- 
evitably sink  into  decay ;  that  they  could  not 
compete  with  the  railways  and  serve  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  State  unless  they  kept 
abreast  of  the  times,  enlarged  their  capacity, 
and  adopted  modern  improvements,  the  same 
as  their  competitors  were  doing.  Experiences 
following  1882  led  many  good  friends  of  the 
canals  to  question  the  wisdom  of  abolishing 
the  tolls. 

There  was  at  this  time  substantially  no 
State  debt  excepting  the  canal  bonds  amount- 
ing to  about  $9,000,000.     The  financial  results 


56  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

of  the  entire  system  to  the  end  of  1882  were  as 
follows :  — 


Total  revenues  of  the  canals  .... 
Expense  of  operation  and  maintenance  . 

Net  revenues 

Cost  of  construction  and  improvement    . 

Profit  without  considering  interest 


$135^418,325 

48,399,287 

$87,019,038 

78,685,580 

$  8,333458 


But  the  loss  on  the  canals  that  had  been 
abandoned  was  over  $18,600,000,  so  that  the 
existing  system  had  to  its  credit  a  gain  of 
nearly  $27,000,000.  The  interest  payments,  of 
course,  largely  overbalanced  this  profit;  about 
$48,000,000  of  the  cost  of  "  plant  "  had  been 
borrowed ;  the  rest  came  from  the  canal  and 
general  revenues.  The  canals  had  paid  back 
to  the  general  funds  $18,850,000;  but  the  Erie 
had  paid  the  State  $42,599,718  more  than  the 
face  of  the  cost,  and,  in  fact,  a  large  surplus 
above  the  cost  with  interest  on  the  debt  in- 
curred. 

The  canals  had  carried  nearly  200,000,000 
tons  of  freight  in  the  60  years  of  their  opera- 
tion; the  value  thereof  was  $8,326,000,000. 
Contrast  this  with  the  modest  prediction  of 
the  canal  commissioners  of   181 2,  that  the  sys- 


THE  CANAL  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  YORK    57 

tern  might  develop  a  trade  of  250,000  tons  a 
year!  Freights  brought  to  the  boat  owners 
$182,500,000,  thus  making  a  total  of  tolls  and 
freight  of  nearly  $318,000,000.  These  figures 
represent  only  a  fraction  of  the  benefits  de- 
rived. The  State  grew  enormously  in  wealth 
as  well  as  in  population;  in  181 7  the  assessed 
valuation  was  $299,000,000;  it  had  more  than 
doubled  by  1837;  again  doubled  by  1853, 
when  the  returns  showed  $1,266,000,000.  This 
was  again  doubled  by  1876,  and  in  1882  the 
amount  stood  at  $2,800,000,000,  of  which  the 
"canal  counties"  returned  over  75%.  The 
greater  part  of  the  early  growth  and  much 
of  the  later  was  unquestionably  due  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  canals. 

Abolition  of  tolls  did  not  check  the  falling 
off  of  business ;  during  the  five  years  ending 
1882,  the  average  annual  tonnage  was  5,500,000, 
valued  at  $205,000,000,  of  which  3,400,000  tons 
was  downward  tide  water  freight,  valued  at 
$92,000,000.  In  the  decade  following  1882, 
the  average  fell  to  slightly  over  5,000,000  tons, 
valued  at  $146,600,000.  The  quantity  of  freight 
carried    down    to    New   York    City   averaged 


58  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

2,800,000  tons,  the  value  thereof  $64,000,000; 
the  two  principal  competing  railways  were 
carrying  an  average  of  over  34,000,000  tons  an- 
nually, and  other  lines  were  taking  more  than 
the  canals.  That  the  question  of  State  tolls  was 
not  an  important  factor  was  conclusively  shown. 
There  was  an  evident  desire  for  a  speedier 
service,  notwithstanding  the  higher  cost. 

The  friends  of  the  canals  were  not  inactive  ; 
upon  several  occasions  efforts  were  made  to 
improve  the  conditions,  notably  in  the  legisla- 
tive session  of  1891,  when  a  plan  was  formu- 
lated. This  met  with  defeat,  which  brought 
about  a  convention  of  delegates  from  chambers 
of  commerce  and  boards  of  trade  in  October, 
1892,  at  which  the  whole  subject  was  fully 
discussed  and  the  legislature  addressed  in 
eloquent  terms,  setting  forth  the  enormous 
advantage  of  the  waterways  to  the  State,  the 
menace  to  the  commerce  of  the  State  in- 
volved in  the  continuance  of  the  prevailing 
policy  and  the  urgency  of  immediate  action. 
A  commission  was  appointed  to  consider  the 
subject  seriously,  and  it  reported  favorably  for 
the  improvement,  but  confining  itself  to  rather 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  59 

narrow  lines.  After  long  discussions  and 
much  opposition,  in  no  small  degree  instigated 
by  railway  interests,  the  legislature  passed  a 
measure  providing  for  the  deepening  of  the 
Erie  and  Oswego  canals  to  9  feet  and  the 
Champlain  to  7  feet,  at  an  expense  estimated  at 
$9,000,000,  to  provide  which  so  much  as  might 
be  necessary  was  to  be  borrowed  by  means  of 
3%  bonds.  This  work  was  expected  to  in- 
crease the  capacity  of  canal  boats  one  third. 
In  order,  presumably,  to  protect  the  boat  in- 
terests and  prevent  the  canal  from  falling 
under  the  control  of  the  railways,  an  act  was 
passed  in  1896  prohibiting  corporations  formed 
to  navigate  the  canals  from  being  capitalized 
in  excess  of  $50,000. 

The  most  far-sighted  advocates  of  canal  im- 
provement felt  that  the  plan  of  1895  was 
merely  trifling  with  the  subject ;  that  it  was  a 
"  penny-wise  and  pound-foolish  "  policy ;  —  and 
so  it  proved.  Not  only  was  all  the  money,  of 
which  $8,500,000  was  borrowed,  spent  with- 
out bringing  the  expected  results,  but  the 
State  had  again  to  experience  scandalous 
practices  in  the  mode  of  expenditures.     It  may 


6o  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

be  said,  however,  for  the  sake  of  the  canals, 
"  It's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no  one  good  " ; 
the  denouement  of  this  failure  served  to  fix 
public  attention  more  generally  upon  the  value 
of  the  waterways,  and  more  of  the  citizens  of 
the  State  gave  it  intelligent  consideration. 
Successive  commissions  of  experts  were  ap- 
pointed, elaborate  surveys  made,  and  most  elab- 
orate and  complete  data  obtained.  Various 
plans  were  formulated  and  earnestly  advocated, 
and  finally  a  plan  of  enlargement,  estimated  to 
cost  $101,000,000,  which  would  enable  1000- 
ton  vessels  to  navigate  the  Erie,  and  materially 
enlarge  the  Champlain,  was  brought  forward. 
Not  so  long  ago  such  a  sum  would  have 
staggered  the  legislature  and  the  people,  but 
when  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  latter 
in  November,  1903,  it  was  approved  by  a  vote 
of  673,010  against  427,698.  This  contem- 
plates the  enlargement  of  the  prism  of  the  Erie 
from  70  to  122  feet  at  surface  and  of  the  depth 
to  12  feet  instead  of  9;  accommodating  boats 
150  feet  long  instead  of  98,  with  draught  of 
10  feet  in  place  of  yl,  thus  more  than  trebling 
the  present  carrying  capacity. 


THE  CANAL  SYSTEM   OF  NEW  YORK  6l 

Since  1892  the  average  annual  tonnage  of 
the  canals  has  been  3,600,000,  an  annual  aver- 
age loss  of  1,400,000  tons  compared  with  the 
preceding  decade.  A  slight  improvement  was 
shown  in  1906  over  previous  years,  due  to  the 
enormous  increase  in  traffic  generally.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  the  average  freight  rate  per  ton  does 
not  exceed  60^,  making  total  freight  earnings 
per  year  $2,100,000  as  against  $7,679,000 
in  187 1.  The  railways  reaching  New  York  and 
competing  with  the  canals  now  carry  70,000,000 
tons  annually;  the  canals  carry  less  than  5% 
of  that  tonnage. 

Several  years  must  pass  before  the  improve- 
ments now  under  way  are  complete  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  same  tested  by  actual  experi- 
ence. There  can  be  no  rational  doubt  of  the 
necessity  of  modernizing  the  canals  and  bring- 
ing their  capacity  up  to  present  commercial 
needs.  It  is  incontestable  that  the  Erie  Canal 
has  proved  enormously  beneficial  in  the  past. 
In  length  it  is  second  only  to  the  Great  Canal 
of  China,  among  the  artificial  commercial 
waterways  of  the  world.  For  a  quarter  of  a 
century  it  was  the  greatest  transportation  line 


62  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

in  the  country,  and  this  was  during  the 
country's  first  industrial  and  commercial 
growth,  the  most  important  in  this  respect, 
since  the  country  had  not  yet  attained  financial 
strength.  Its  benefits  were  not  confined  to 
the  people  of  the  State ;  they  extended  on  the 
one  hand  to  the  people  of  the  West  country, 
giving  them  an  outlet  for  their  products  and 
stimulating  their  development  and  prosperity ; 
it  gave  the  people  of  the  East,  and  notably  to 
New  England,  and  also  to  Europe,  cheaper 
transportation,  which  meant  lower  prices  to 
the  consumer,  particularly  of  food  products. 
It  not  only  furnished  cheap  transportation,  but 
compelled  the  railroads  to  transport  goods  at 
reasonable  rates. 

The  all-rail  rate  from  Chicago  to  New  York 
is  the  base  line  upon  which  all  railroad  rates 
east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Ohio 
are  fixed,  and  to  which  they  are  proportioned.^ 
The  all-rail  rate  from  Chicago  to  New  York 
has  been  steadily  lowered  to  meet  the  water 
rate  (by  lakes,  canal,  and  river)  from  Chicago 
to  New  York.     In  this  way  the  Erie  Canal  has 

^  Testimony  of  Albert  Finck  before  the  Hepburn  Committee. 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  63 

been  the  regulator  of  railway  rates,  and  has 
cheapened  freights  to  all  people  of  the  State 
and  directly  benefited  them,  whether  they 
reside  in  the  canal  counties,  or  in  the  Southern 
tier,  or  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley.  For  in- 
stance, the  all-rail  rate  in  1868  upon  wheat, 
Chicago  to  New  York,  was  42.6^  per  bushel; 
in  1879  it  was  20)^,  and  in  late  years  it  has 
averaged  under  1 1  ^.  Carried  by  lake  steamer 
to  Buffalo  and  by  canal  and  river  to  New  York, 
the  rate  was  23  ^  in  1868,  12  ^  in  1879,  and  has 
been  5  ^  in  recent  years. 

We  have  noted  the  enormous  revenues  which 
the  Erie  Canal  paid  into  the  State  treasury. 
More  important  still,  it  was  the  chief,  if  not 
indispensable,  factor  in  building  up  a  chain  of 
towns  and  cities  along  the  routes,  which  make 
the  State  first  in  population,  and  also  in  foster- 
ing the  rapid  development  of  wealth,  placing 
the  State  in  the  lead  in  that  respect  among  the 
commonwealths  of  the  Union.  It  was  the 
channel  through  which  were  poured  the  raw 
products  of  the  West  into  the  archives  of  New 
York;  and  in  turn  finished  products  were 
carried  to  Western  consumers,  until  New  York 


64  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

City,  during  the  period  1 868-1 872,  enjoyed 
56%  of  the  total  export  trade  of  the  whole  coun- 
try ;  it  now  enjoys  less  than  35%. 

In  1820  the  population  of  the  State  was 
^,373,000  ;  its  assessed  valuation  was  $256,000,- 
000.  The  present  population  is  nearly  8,000,000, 
and  the  assessed  valuation  is  $8,000,000,000. 
The  State  can  much  better  afford  to  spend 
$101,000,000  upon  the  canal  now  than  it  could 
$10,000,000  in  1820.  While  conditions  are  not 
in  the  least  similar,  the  State's  necessity  is 
quite  as  great. 

The  history  of  the  canals  bears  upon  the 
question,  recently  much  discussed,  of  public 
ownership  and  control  of  transportation  facili- 
ties. Here  was  a  great  and  unquestionably 
beneficent  public  work,  undertaken  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  all  the  people,  to  provide  cheaper 
transfers;  side  by  side  another  form  of  trans- 
portation was  developed  under  private  auspices. 
While  the  latter  was  year  by  year  improved  to 
meet  the  ever  growing  needs,  the  former  was 
permitted  to  degenerate.  Doubtless  the  rail- 
way interests  assisted  in  making  the  canal 
record  a  deplorable  one,  but  this  fact   merely 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  6$ 

adds  emphasis  to  the  opposition  to  public 
ownership.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  had  the  canal 
system  been  privately  owned  by  strong  interests, 
it  would  not  have  degenerated  as  it  did.  Public 
service,  unless  under  continuous  stimulation, 
does  not  yet  seem  equal  to  the  task  imposed  by 
such  undertakings.  Much  remains  to  be  done 
in  the  way  of  public  service  reform  before  the 
change  to  public  ownership  and  operation  can 
be  regarded  wise. 

The  canals  of  New  York  were  necessarily 
built  by  the  State.  The  undertaking  called  for 
too  vast  an  expenditure  to  be  within  the  means 
of  individual  or  corporate  enterprise,  owing  to 
the  comparative  poverty  of  our  newly  formed 
commonwealth  and  its  undeveloped  resources. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  the  most  important  instance 
of  government  ownership  of  a  public  utility 
which  we  have.  It  is  owned  and  managed  by 
the  State  upon  the  general  principle  upon  which 
municipal  and  government  ownership  advocates 
claim  that  all  public  utilities  should  be  owned 
and  controlled,  —  in  order  to  furnish  the  public 
good  service,  freed  from  the  control  and  manip- 
ulation of  the  avaricious. 


66  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

Recall  its  infinite  delays,  extravagance,  and 
graft ;  recall  its  most  unbusinesslike  manage- 
ment; no  improvement  in  capacity  for  the  past 
42  years,  notwithstanding  it  has  been  a  period 
of  phenomenal  development  and  prosperity ; 
and  contrast  its  management  with  that  of  its 
rivals,  the  railroads,  as  to  roadbed  (prism),  roll- 
ing stock  (boats),  general  equipment,  general 
management;  and  surely  it  all  must  militate 
against  the  wisdom  and  efficiency  of  government 
ownership  and  control  in  all  cases  where  indi- 
vidual enterprise  may  supply  the  need.  The 
same  reflection  compels  the  conclusion  that  the 
present  plans  for  improvement  and  develop- 
ment, expensive  though  they  be,  are  amply 
justified,  and  that  the  canals  should  in  future  be 
managed  with  the  solicitude  and  business  acu- 
men which  characterizes  individual  enterprise. 

With  proper  supervision  of  the  enormous  ex- 
penditure proposed ;  with  an  effective  control 
of  the  management  to  the  end  that  the  enlarged 
canal  shall  furnish  the  service  contemplated; 
and  with  wise  economy  in  the  place  of  careless 
extravagance,  it  appears  entirely  safe  to  predict 
that  the  State  will  receive,  in  increased  trade, 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   tOYCtr^/,   ^djTv 

profits  of  the  transport  lines  and  general  growth,    ^ 
of  the  municipalities  along  the  line  of  operation/  y^^  ^ 
a  return  which  will  be  proportionately  as  great:  y  "^p^ 
as  that  which  the  records  of  the  Erie  show  to  •       ^ 
have   been    realized  in  the  past ;  that   in   less 
than  a  generation  the  benefits  will  have  more 
than  offset  the  entire  expenditure. 

In  addition,  great  pecuniary  advantage  will 
accrue  to  the  producers  at  one  end  and  the 
consumers  at  the  other,  from  the  great  reduc- 
tion in  the  transport  charges  that  must  inevi- 
tably follow  the  enlargement. 

IV 

The  Competition    against   New  York  City 

The  importance  of  the  Erie  Canal  during 
the  period  of  its  greatest  efficiency,  to  the 
commercial  and  industrial  development  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  cannot  be  overestimated ; 
it  was  all-powerful  in  making  the  City  of  New 
York  the  chief  port  of  the  United  States 
and  one  of  the  greatest  ports  of  the  world. 
Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  relative 
decline  of  the  foreign  trade  of  New  York,  and 


68  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

the  statistics  in  the  final  chapter  present  the 
matter  graphically.  Compared  with  the  vol- 
ume of  exports  in  1890,  New  York  in  1907 
had  lost  $136,000,000;  compared  with  1880, 
the  figures  for  1907  show  a  decline  estimated 
at  $254,000,000.  These  losses  in  New  York's 
share  of  exports  have  accrued  to  other  ports. 

A  number  of  factors  have  combined  to  re- 
duce the  percentage  of  New  York's  export 
trade ;  unlike  many  of  her  rivals,  she  has  no 
railroad  interests  specially  devoted  to  her  cause 
in  the  struggle  for  traffic.  The  New  York 
Central  Railroad,  through  its  control  of  lines 
to  Boston,  derives  just  as  much,  if  not  more, 
advantage  in  carrying  freight  to  the  New  Eng- 
land port ;  the  other  trunk  lines  entering  from 
the  South  stop  at,  or  pass  through,  rival  sea- 
board terminals  before  reaching  New  York. 

A  complex  system  of  "differentials"  in 
through  rates  by  rail  from  interior  points  to 
the  seaboard  discriminates  against  New  York. 
The  purpose  of  this  system  is  to  place  all  At- 
lantic seaboard  points  upon  an  equality,  by  off- 
setting in  transportation  charges  the  assumed 
advantages  possessed  by  New  York,  both  in 


THE  CANAL  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  YORK    69 

the  matter  of  easier  transportation,  due  to 
better  gradients  of  her  railways  through  the 
Mohawk  Valley,  and  the  somewhat  lower 
ocean  freights  due  to  the  greater  competition 
among  foreign  carriers.  Thus  by  agreement 
between  the  trunk  lines,  Boston,  although  50 
miles  farther  from  Chicago,  by  the  shortest 
route,  obtains  the  same  rate  as  New  York. 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Newport  News, 
all  nearer  the  West  than  New  York,  were 
accorded  rates  lower  by  two  to  three  per  cent. 
Recent  alterations  in  the  schedule  have  re- 
duced the  differentials  somewhat,  but  the  ports 
to  the  South  have  still  a  substantial  advantage 
in  respect  to  rates. 

On  the  other  hand.  New  York's  insular  posi- 
tion compels  the  imposition  of  lighterage  charges 
for  the  transshipment  of  freight  from  railway 
cars  to  ocean  steamers ;  competing  ports  avoid 
this  charge,  because  freight  is  transferred  from 
terminal  tracks  direct  to  the  ocean  carriers. 
A  further  impost  is  laid  upon  New  York's 
foreign  trade  by  her  very  high  port  charges, 
explained,  perhaps,  but  by  no  means  justified, 
by  her  very  inadequate  dock  facilities.     The 


70  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

crowded  condition  of  the  wharves  and  the 
channels  of  ingress  and  egress  therefrom,  and 
the  narrow  thoroughfares  occupied  so  fully  by 
other  interests,  necessarily  impede  traffic  and 
render  the  same  more  expensive. 

But  the  deterioration  of  the  canal  service,  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  the  failure  to  maintain 
and  develop  it,  to  keep  pace  with  the  advanc- 
ing needs  of  trade,  are  mainly  responsible  for 
the  relative  falling  off  of  New  York's  foreign 
trade,  especially  as  to  exports.  The  enormous 
export  grain  traffic  coming  through  the  Great 
Lakes  demands  cheaper  handling  than  the 
present  means  available  to  New  York  afford. 
Transshipment  from  lake  steamers  at  Buffalo, 
and  forwarding  by  rail  to  the  metropolis,  in- 
volves a  charge  of  5^  per  bushel.  By  canal 
the  charge  is  substantially  the  same.  The 
Canadian  route,  via  the  Welland  Canal,  Lake 
Ontario,  and  the  now  efficiently  canalized  St. 
Lawrence  River,  affords  a  transfer  at  so  much 
lower  rates,  that  the  estimated  cost  of  convey- 
ing the  bushel  of  grain  from  Duluth,  or  other 
primary  lake  points,  to  Montreal,  where  trans- 
atlantic steamers  take  the  cargo,  is  only  5^. 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  71 

Freight  has  no  consideration  of  patriotism ; 
obedient  to  imperious  economic  law,  it  will 
move  along  the  line  of  least  expense.  The 
St.  Lawrence  route,  completed,  as  to  the  latest 
improvements,  in  1900,  is  now  by  far  the 
shortest  and  cheapest,  and  Montreal  and  the 
Dominion  are  profiting  from  the  large  but 
judicious  outlays  of  public  money  upon  this 
waterway.  Unless  the  rivalry  is  adequately 
met,  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  the 
bulk  of  the  enormous  trade  of  the  rapidly  de- 
veloping Northwest,  will  reach  the  markets  of 
the  world  through  the  Canadian  route,  whether 
originating  in  the  Dominion  or  in  the  United 
States. 

The  freight  which  passes  through  the  two 
canals  (American  and  Canadian)  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  reached  an  aggregate  of  58,000,000  tons 
in  1907,  an  increase  of  14,000,000  tons  in  two 
years.  The  capacity  of  the  vessels  engaged  in 
lake  trafKc  and  utilizing  these  canals  has  been 
enlarged  almost  annually.  To  meet  these 
developments  the  Canadian  Government  im- 
proved its  great  waterway  to  the  seaboard, 
so  as  to  admit  the  passage  of  vessels  of  2200 


72  ARTIFICIAL    WATERWAYS 

tons  burthen.  As  shown  in  the  tables  in  the 
Appendix,  the  capacity  of  the  locks  of  the 
Canadian  canals  is  more  than  twice  that  of 
the  locks  of  the  Erie.  Canada  is  thus  able 
to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  the  route 
from  Chicago  or  Duluth  to  Liverpool,  via 
Montreal,  is  450  miles  shorter  then  via  New 
York.  Following  this  expenditure  of  many 
millions,  further  improvements  are  now  con- 
templated in  order  to  enlarge  the  facilities  and 
diminish  the  obstacles  and  expense  still  more. 
For  a  decade  past,  another  and  still  shorter 
route  has  been  under  consideration  from  Geor- 
gian Bay  to  Montreal  via  the  Ottawa  River. 

The  proposed  Georgian  Bay  route,  which 
was  practically  indorsed  by  the  people  of  the 
Dominion  at  their  recent  election,  contemplates 
a  waterway  430  miles  in  length,  with  a  depth  of 
22  feet,  and  locks  650  feet  long  and  65  feet 
wide.  The  cost  is  estimated  at  from  $90,000,- 
000  to  $100,000,000.  The  route  includes,  in 
the  430  miles  of  length,  fully  400  miles  of 
sheltered  lake  and  river,  susceptible  of  econom- 
ical improvement.  Of  the  30  miles  of  actual 
canal  required,  nearly  one  half,  in  the  vicinity 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  73 

of  Montreal,  already  exists,  but  would,  of  course, 
require  deepening  and  enlargement.  This  route 
will  save  approximately  340  miles  of  navigation 
as  compared  with  the  route  via  the  Lakes  and 
River  St.  Lawrence,  and  will  make  the  dis- 
tance from  Chicago  or  Duluth  to  Liverpool, 
via  the  proposed  canal,  approximately  800  miles 
shorter  than  via  New  York. 

A  canal  to  connect  Lakes  Winnipeg  and 
Superior,  thus  bringing  water  transportation 
hundreds  of  miles  nearer  the  grain  fields  of 
the  Saskatchewan,  has  been  proposed  by  James 
J.  Hill. 

These  are  the  competitive  factors  which 
New  York  proposes  to  meet  by  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Erie  Canal ;  it  is  the  sole  remain- 
ing resource.  Only  recently  a  number  of  large 
freighters  of  transatlantic  lines  operating  from 
New  York  were  for  a  time  taken  off  from  serv- 
ice ;  the  representatives  of  the  ocean-carrying 
companies  protested  to  the  railway  companies 
against  their  scale  of  charges  upon  grain,  which 
they  assert  make  the  transportation  cost  to 
Europe  via  New  York  prohibitive,  as  compared 
with   the    Montreal    route.     But   the   railways 


74  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

have  troubles  of  their  own,  and  are  struggling 
with  serious  problems  which  apparently  pre- 
clude their  reducing  these  charges.  The  canal 
is  the  only  means  in  sight  to  stay  the  further  de- 
cline of  the  commerce  of  the  port  of  New  York. 

The  trunk  lines  terminating  at  the  seaboard 
have  by  agreement  bargained  away  all  of  New 
York's  natural  advantages,  and  the  crucial  facts 
of  present  experience  prove  that  the  railroads 
cannot  maintain  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States,  in  competition  with  Canadian  water- 
ways. It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  competi- 
tion between  rail  and  water,  —  the  question  is, 
Can  the  canalization  of  our  water  routes  so 
supplement  the  railroads  that,  working  together, 
they  can  retain  for  the  United  States  the  foreign 
commerce  to  w^hich  it  is  normally  entitled.? 

The  canal  improvement  under  way,  when 
completed,  means  that  larger  vessels,  each  car- 
rying 33,000  bushels  of  grain,  and  operated  in 
fleets  instead  of  singly,  could  reduce  the 
time  now  required  to  transfer  freight  from 
Buffalo  to  New  York  by  water  at  least  50 
per  cent,  with  a  consequent  reduction  in 
charges  in   about  the  same  proportion.     It   is 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF   NEW   YORK  75 

claimed  that  wheat  can  be  carried  from  Chi- 
cago to  New  York  at  a  cost  of  2j^  per 
bushel  by  this  improved  transportation  line; 
adding  elevator  charges  at  Buffalo,  |  i  per 
bushel,  and  cost  of  handling  at  New  York, 
would  make  a  total  cost  of  4.6  ^  from  Chi- 
cago on  board  vessel  at  New  York;^  and  a 
similar  reduction  of  charges  upon  other  freight, 
not  requiring  speedy  transfer,  is  hoped  for. 

But  the  people  of  New  York  do  not  appear 
to  be  fully  awake  to  the  need  of  an  early 
completion  of  their  great  canal  improvement. 
After  the  lapse  of  four  years  since  the  requi- 
site legislation  for  the  purpose  was  obtained, 
the  work  actually  under  way  constitutes  about 
one  third  of  the  contemplated  work,  the  es- 
timated cost  of  the  part  under  contract  being 
about  $33,000,000.  Plans  for  nearly  one  third 
of  the  work  are  as  yet  incomplete ;  for  the 
remainder,  also  about  one  third  of  the  entire 
work,  the  plans  and  estimates  are  taking  their 
slow  course  through  the  hands  of  the  engineers, 
the  Canal  Board,  the  Advisory  Board,  to  the 
stage  of  advertising  for  bids  of  contractors. 
1  Greene's  Report,  1899,  p.  37. 


76  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

Unless  much  greater  progress  can  be  made, 
the  benefits  to  accrue  to  the  State,  and  to  the 
port  of  New  York,  will  not  be  adequately 
realized.  Competitors  are  by  no  means  in- 
active, and  the  lapse  of  time  may  bring  new 
competitive  conditions  which  even  the  results 
from  the  great  expenditure  upon  the  Erie 
will  not  prove  sufficient  to  overcome. 

To  illustrate  concretely  the  force  of  the  Cana- 
dian competition  as  it  affects  all  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  ports  of  the  United  States,  it  is  perti- 
nent to  give  the  following  comparative  figures: — 

For  the  seven  years  prior  to  1901,  the  total 
receipts  of  grain  (including  flour  at  the  rate 
of  4^  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  barrel)  averaged, 
for  these  ports  and  Montreal,  408  million 
bushels  annually,  of  which  the  Canadian  port 
took  31  million  bushels,  or  about  y.y  %. 

For  the  seven  years  1901  to  1907,  the  an- 
nual average  was  314  million  bushels,  Montreal 
taking  34  millions,  or  about  10.5  %  of  the  total. 

In  1907  the  Canadian  route  carried  43  million 
bushels  out  of  a  total  of  355  millions,  or  a  ratio 
of  12  %,  whereas  in  1900,  before  the  completion 
of  her  canal  improvements,  the  Canadian  ratio 


THE   CANAL   SYSTEM   OF  NEW   YORK  Tf 

was  only  7^%.     For   1908   the  ratio  will  cer- 
tainly be  materially  larger  than  for  1907. 

The  Erie  Canal  has,  during  the  greater 
part  of  its  existence,  been  regarded  as  a  com- 
petitor of  the  railways ;  has  been  fiercely  fought 
and  unceasingly  hampered ;  all  improvements 
tending  to  increase  its  efficiency  have  been 
vigorously  opposed  by  the  powerful  railway 
interests ;  the  railways,  through  their  tax-paying 
obligations,  are  joint  owners  of  the  canals  in 
common  with  all  other  interests  in  the  State ; 
under  the  specious  plea  of  economy  and  by 
use  of  their  great  influence  in  matters  of 
legislation,  they  have  made  themselves  largely 
responsible  for  the  inefficient  canal  policy  of 
the  State.  The  important  consideration  that 
waterways  are  needed  to  supplement  the  land 
routes,  has  not  been  given  due  weight.  The 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  gathers  the  grain 
from  the  outlying  fields,  transfers  it  to  lake 
steamers,  which  carry  it  by  canals  and  rivers 
to  Montreal,  where  the  Canadian  Pacific's 
Atlantic  steamers  take  it  to  Liverpool.  This 
supplementing  and  cooperating  of  the  three 
classes    of    transport   facilities    unquestionably 


78  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

brings  success  in  competition  with  the  system 
prevailing  in  the  United  States. 

There  are  two  pertinent  examples  of  the 
effect  of  cooperation  in  the  use  of  transport 
facilities  in  foreign  trade:  — 

The  port  of  Galveston,  Texas,  returned  ex- 
ports valued  at  $24,000,000  in  1890  ;  $41,900,000 
in  1895,  and  $85,600,000  in  1900;  in  1907  the 
total  had  risen  to  $237,400,000,  and  although 
the  imports  are  insignificant,  that  port  ranks 
second  only  to  New  York  in  the  aggregate  of 
its  foreign  commerce. 

The  port  of  Puget  Sound  reported  in  1890, 
$3,300,000  of  exports,  and  San  Francisco 
$36,800,000;  in  1900  the  former  reported 
$17,900,000  and  the  latter  $40,300,000;  by  1905 
the  exports  of  Puget  Sound  were  valued  at 
$43,800,000,  and  those  of  San  Francisco  at 
$49,900,000.  The  injury  wrought  to  San  Fran- 
cisco's trade  by  the  serious  earthquake  and  fire 
in  1906  should  be  given  due  consideration  in 
comparing  subsequent  statistics,  the  movement 
at  Washington's  port  having  exceeded  by 
nearly  $10,000,000  the  exports  of  that  of  Cali- 
fornia in   1906. 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL 

No  discussion  of  the  influence  of  artificial 
waterways  upon  the  economic  future  of  the 
world  would  be  complete  without  mention  of 
the  gigantic  undertaking  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  to  complete  the  abandoned 
French  enterprise  of  connecting  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  oceans  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

The  advantage  of  such  a  canal  was  clearly- 
perceived  as  early  as  1520,  when  Charles  V  of 
Spain  is  reported  to  have  given  it  consideration. 
In  1534  a  survey  was  ordered,  but  unfavorable 
reports  of  the  Spanish  governor  of  Panama,  and 
probably  also  his  suggestion  that  such  a  work 
would  be  in  "  opposition  to  the  will  of  the 
Almighty,  who  had  placed  this  barrier  in  the 
way  of  navigation  between  the  two  oceans," 
caused  the  project  to  be  abandoned ;  and  al- 
though revived  at  later  periods,  it  never  took 
practical  form  until  about  1878,  when  French 
interests    obtained    a   concession  from  the    re- 

79 


8o  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

public  of  Colombia.  De  Lesseps,  who  had 
built  the  Suez  Canal,  became  the  chief  spirit 
in  the  enterprise  undertaken  by  a  corporation 
formed  in  1879. 

Actual  operations  were  delayed  until  1883; 
lavish  expenditures,  stock  jobbing,  and  technical 
errors  brought  the  company  to  bankruptcy  in 
six  years.  Then  the  concession  expired,  and  it 
was  only  after  much  delay  that  a  renewal  was 
obtained,  under  which  a  new  company  was  or- 
ganized in  1894.  The  plans  of  this  corpora- 
tion also  proved  unsuccessful,  and  work  was 
practically  abandoned.  The  concession  was 
for  ten  years,  thus  expiring  in  1904;  in  another 
grant  from  Colombia  it  was  conditioned  that 
the  canal  should  be  completed  by  19 10. 

Both  private  interests  and  the  Government, 
in  the  United  States,  had  for  many  years  given 
attention  to  the  subject  of  an  interoceanic 
canal ;  the  Nicaragua  route  for  a  time  found 
much  favor.  In  June,  1902,  Congress  passed  a 
law  under  which  the  Government  was  to  under- 
take the  construction  of  an  Isthmian  waterway, 
and  finally  it  was  determined  that  the  Panama 
route  be   used,  provided  the  French  interests 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL  8 1 

could  be  acquired  and  suitable  arrangements 
made  with  the  Government  of  Colombia.  The 
former  condition  was  satisfactorily  negotiated 
in  a  short  time,  but  Colombia,  which  had  been 
for  about  a  decade  torn  by  civil  war,  was  not 
disposed  to  grant  all  the  needed  privileges  asked 
for.  Inasmuch  as  the  question  of  selecting  the 
route  depended  upon  this  contingency,  the 
people  of  the  State  of  Panama,  who  naturally 
had  the  largest  interest  in  the  use  of  that  isth- 
mus, concluded  to  secede  from  the  federal  re- 
public of  Colombia  and  take  matters  in  their 
own  hands.  When  this  was  accomplished,  in 
November,  1903,  the  requisite  concessions  were 
speedily  granted. 

For  the  rights  and  property  of  the  French 
company  the  United  States  paid  $40,000,000; 
this  included  the  Panama  Railroad,  which  the 
company  had  acquired.  For  the  exclusive  own- 
ership and  control  of  a  strip  of  territory  of  five 
miles  on  each  side  of  the  proposed  canal,  the 
new  republic  of  Panama  received  $10,000,000. 
(After  nine  years  there  is  also  to  be  paid  an 
annual  stipend  of  $250,000.)  It  is  generally 
believed  that  the  total  cost,  including  the  above- 


82  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

named  disbursements,  will  exceed  $200,000,000. 
Congress  has  authorized  the  borrowing  of  that 
sum  through  an  issue  of  thirty-year  2%  bonds 

While  the  superiority  of  the  Panama  route 
over  others  which  had  been  considered  was  not 
decided  upon  without  a  long  contest,  and  while 
expert  engineers  are  not  altogether  of  one 
mind  as  to  the  feasibility  of  the  project,  owing 
to  the  many  natural  obstacles  to  be  encoun- 
tered, the  preponderant  opinion  of  the  highest 
authorities  in  the  engineering  field  gives 
ground  for  belief  that  the  obstacles  will  be 
mastered  by  the  greatly  advanced  methods  of 
the  profession. 

It  is  gratifying  to  note  that  despite  some 
discouraging  experiences  due  to  causes  not 
entirely  dissociated  from  political  considera- 
tions, the  energetic  steps  taken  by  President 
Roosevelt,  ably  seconded  by  his  War  Secre- 
taries Root  and  Taft,  have  resulted  in  speedier 
progress  than  many  of  the  critics  regarded  as 
probable ;  particularly  has  this  been  the  case 
since  the  work  was  placed  in  charge  of  members 
of  the  Corps  of  Engineers  of  the  Army. 

The  canal  is  to  be  of  the  lock   class;    its 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL  83 

length  will  be  about  46  miles,  the  depth  from 
30  to  45  feet;  width  from  200  to  1000  feet. 
Upon  the  actual  work  of  digging  the  canal 
over  $65,000,000  has  already  been  expended; 
in  addition  about  $13,000,000  has  been  used 
for  sanitary  and  municipal  improvements;  the 
aggregate  disbursements  up  to  date  (July  31, 
1908)  have  been  $128,500,000.  Nearly  50,000 
persons  are  employed  upon  the  entire  project. 
Excavation  work  has  reached  an  average  of 
over  2,500,000  cubic  yards  per  month,  and  a 
maximum  of  over  3,000,000  cubic  yards  in 
a  single  month.  The  total  excavation  required 
is  estimated  at  223,548,000  cubic  yards;  40,700- 
000  cubic  yards  have  been  removed  by  our  en- 
gineers, and  about  the  same  quantity  of  work 
done  by  the  French  is  such  as  can  be  utilized. 
This  great  enterprise,  when  finished,  as  it 
may  be  within  five  years,  is  destined  to  prove 
to  the  commercial  world  the  most  valuable  of 
such  works  yet  undertaken.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  trade  between  the  Pacific  and  the 
Atlantic,  .by  shortening  and  hence  cheapening 
the  cost  of  the  transfer,  will  obviously  be  great. 
The  elimination   of  a  very  large  part  of  the 


84  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

transcontinental  railway  charge  upon  com- 
modities from  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River  will  bring  them 
nearer  to  the  teeming  peoples  of  Asia,  number- 
ing fully  750  million  souls,  not  to  speak  of  the 
rapidly  growing  Australasian  commonwealth 
and  the  Islands  of  the  sea. 

The  cost  of  the  double  transshipment  from 
vessel  to  railway  at  Colon  and  from  railway  to 
vessel  at  Panama,  now  unavoidable  in  traffic  be- 
tween the  oceans  via  the  Isthmian  route,  will 
be  superseded  by  a  simple  and  reasonable  toll 
charge. 

The  Pacific  ports  of  the  United  States  will 
be  nearer  to  the  Atlantic  ports,  comparing  the 
all-water  route  via  Cape  Horn,  by  nearly  8000 
miles;  and  those  of  Chile,  Peru,  etc.,  will  be 
brought  nearer  New  York  by  from  4000  to 
6000  miles.  Yokohama  and  Shanghai,  Manila 
and  Sidney,  will  be  also  from  8000  to  4000 
miles  nearer.  The  proximity  of  the  Gulf  ports 
promises  to  afford  the  Southern  States  of  the 
Union  a  great  opportunity  for  industrial  and 
commercial  development. 

The  cotton  and  grain  going  to  Japan  and 


THE   PANAMA   CANAL  85 

China  will  be  delivered  at  less  cost,  and  the 
demand  for  these  commodities  will  naturally 
expand.  The  use  of  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  will  be  almost  certainly  revived,  and 
the  Father  of  Waters  may  recover  its  former 
commercial  importance. 

Nor  will  the  advantage  accrue  entirely  to 
the  United  States;  for  although  the  difference 
in  distance  between  the  ports  of  western 
Europe  and  the  Orient,  via  Suez  and  via 
Panama,  is  not  substantially  important,  that 
between  those  ports  and  the  Pacific  ports  of 
both  North  and  South  America  and  points 
in  Oceanica  will  be  materially  shortened  by 
the  Panama  waterway.  Moreover,  by  a  com- 
petitive toll  rate  via  Panama,  a  considerable 
part  of  the  Asiatic  traffic  will  doubtless  be 
diverted  from  Suez. 

Estimates  as  to  the  probable  tonnage  that 
will  use  the  canal  vary;  a  reasonable  one  is 
about  6,000,000  tons,  crediting  by  far  the  greater 
part  to  freight  from  Atlantic  and  Gulf  ports 
of  the  United  States.  This,  it  is  confidently 
expected,  will  show  increases  almost  annually, 
just  as  was  the  case  in  the  history  of  the  Suez 


86  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

Canal.  Placing  the  cost  of  operation  at  about 
$2,000,000  annually,  the  net  earnings,  if  tolls 
were,  as  is  suggested,  placed  at  $1  per  ton, 
would  just  cover  the  interest  on  the  bonds  to 
be  issued  to  finance  the  project. 

Obviously,  private  capital  could  not  have 
been  induced  to  undertake  the  enterprise  upon 
such  a  showing.  Yet  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
Suez  charges  (for  a  canal  about  twice  as  long) 
amount  to  $2  per  ton.  Its  net  tonnage  transit 
did  not  reach  6,000,000  net  tons  until  1885;  it 
is  now  upward  of  12,000,000  net  tons  annually. 

While  the  Panama  waterway  is  to  be  neutral, 
that  is,  open  to  all  nations,  it  is  patent  that  its 
control  by  the  United  States  is  of  almost  incal- 
culable importance  in  the  event  of  war.  The 
experience  during  the  Spanish  War,  and  the 
more  recent  experimental'  test  of  sending  a  full 
fleet  around  the  Horn,  are  circumstances  which 
clearly  show  the  strategic  importance  of  the 
short  waterway. 

Without  the  Panama  Canal  the  United 
States,  in  the  proper  defense  of  its  coast  line,  as 
well  as  the  enforcement  and  protection  of  its 
rights,  would  be  compelled  to  maintain  two  first- 


THE   PANAMA  CANAL  ^    /^r   ^^ 

class  navies, — one  in  the  Atlantic  and  one  in^e    r>j    ^'j. 
Pacific ;  since,  in  the  event  of  war,  months  must^.  ,   '^r 
elapse  ere  war  vessels  on  either  coast  could  be    -^    ^i 
made  available   on   the   other.     The    lessened         ^^ 
cost  of  naval  expenditure,  apart  from  the  ad- 
vantage to  commerce,  will  therefore  fully  jus- 
tify the  expenditure  in  building  the  canal  by  the 
United  States. 


THE  WATERWAYS  QUESTION  AND 
CONSERVATION  OF  OUR  RE- 
SOURCES 

The  rehabilitation  of  both  the  artificial  and 
the  natural  waterways  in  the  United  States  has 
been  brought  prominently  forward  for  7iational 
consideration  by  reason  of  the  inability  of  the 
land  routes  to  give  adequate  service  at  periods 
of  special  pressure.  In  the  fall  of  1906  both  our 
cotton  and  our  grain  crops  were  several  weeks 
late  in  reaching  market  for  lack  of  transporta- 
tion means.  The  delay  was  caused  not  so  much 
by  want  of  rolling  stock,  as  by  insufficient  road- 
beds and  terminals.  As  population  increased, 
factories,  warehouses,  docks,  and  all  the  struc- 
tures designed  to  house  and  expedite  commerce, 
were  builded  about  the  railways  and  their  depots, 
until  now  they  are  wedged  in  as  by  a  vise.  They 
periodically  lack  trackage  and  terminals  suf- 
ficient to  enable  them  to  do  the  business  which 
offers.     The  space  they  need  to  enable  them  to 

88 


THE   WATERWAYS   QUESTION  89 

double,  treble,  or  quadruple  track  their  roads  and 
enlarge  their  terminals,  can  only  be  obtained 
at  almost  prohibitive  prices,  and  in  many  in- 
stances is  unattainable.  As  population  becomes 
still  more  dense  and  our  civilization  more  com- 
plex, our  production  and  commerce  expanding, 
these  essential  conditions  of  land  transport  will 
become  more  difficult ;  the  water  routes  will 
unavoidably  be  resorted  to  for  the  solution  of 
the  problems  thus  presented. 

History  shows  that  enterprise,  in  its  various 
forms,  moves  in  waves,  with  maximum  and 
minimum  growth  and  periods  of  stagnation  or 
comparative  inactivity.  In  the  development  of 
a  new  country,  under  the  impulse  to  anticipate 
the  future,  to  realize  presently  the  greatest  pos- 
sible profit,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  rapid 
transportation  of  the  railway  would  monopolize 
the  public  interest,  and  canal  transportation  be 
voted  too  slow.  Small  wonder  that  canal  con- 
struction should  be  neglected,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  even  existing  canals  be  per- 
mitted to  fall  into  disuse  and  be  abandoned. 
With  denser  population  and  overtaxed  trans- 
portation  facilities,    the   tide   has   turned;  the 


90  ARTIFICIAL  WATERWAYS 

public,  confronted  by  conditions,  not  theories, 
realize  that  rail  transportation  must  be  supple- 
mented and  complemented  by  inland  water 
routes.  Other  nations  have  far  surpassed  us 
in  these  respects,  and  we  are  bound  to  follow 
in  the  wake  of  this  world-wide  influence. 
There  are  powerful  factors  at  work  in  favor 
of  the  canalization  of  our  rivers  and  lakes.  A 
national  movement  for  the  conservation  of  our 
national  resources  has  been  inaugurated  by 
Congress.  The  President  convened  the  Gov- 
ernors of  all  the  States  to  meet  other  distin- 
guished men,  to  consider  the  same  question. 
The  scope  of  this  policy  can  best  be  stated  in 
the  words  of  Senator  Newlands :  ^  — 

"  A  comprehensive  plan  for  the  development  of  our 
waterways  of  necessity  takes  into  consideration  all  of  the 
related  questions  of  forest  preservation  and  restoration,  of 
the  irrigation  of  arid  lands,  of  the  reclamation  of  swamp 
lands,  of  bank  protection,  of  clarification  of  streams  and 
other  kindred  subjects,  as  well  as  of  canal  construction.  It 
does  not  mean  simply  getting  a  dredging  machine  for  the 
purpose  of  removing  sandbars,  and  digging  a  channel.  It 
involves  the  prevention  of  floods,  when  the  rivers  rush  down 
in  torrential  streams,  destroying  property,  and  then,  having 
wasted  the  water  in  the  ocean,  are  attenuated  till  boats 

^  North  American  Review. 


THE   WATERWAYS   QUESTION  91 

cannot  float  upon  them.  It  involves  the  preservation  of 
forests,  because  forests  are  the  great  conservators  of  moisture 
and  aid  in  the  gradual  distribution  to  the  rivers.  It  involves 
the  question  of  irrigation  of  arid  lands  at  the  head  waters 
of  our  inland  rivers  —  the  creation  of  great  reservoirs,  where 
the  flood  waters  can  be  impounded  and  led  over  the  plains 
for  purposes  of  irrigation,  to  be  gradually  returned  to  the 
rivers  when  most  required  by  them.  Where  it  cannot  be 
advantageous  to  irrigation,  the  water  can  be  kept  impounded, 
—  as  is  now  done  in  the  upper  Mississippi  and  in  some 
foreign  countries,  —  to  be  let  out  at  a  time  of  low  water  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  maintain  navigation  throughout  the 
summer. 

"  Forestry  and  irrigation  are  both  essential  to  the  preven- 
tion of  floods  and  soil  waste  and  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
stable  channel  for  navigation,  besides  creating  vast  money 
values  and  great  happiness  and  comfort  in  the  development 
of  immense  forests  and  broad  plains  irrigated  to  almost  un- 
limited productiveness.  The  artificializing  of  a  river  means 
that  it  shall  be  kept  at  a  standard  depth,  to  accommodate 
vessels  of  standard  draft,  just  as  there  is  a  standard  gauge 
for  railroads.  .   .   . 

"  It  also  involves  the  reclamation  of  swamp  lands,  which 
means  the  addition  of  large  and  immensely  fertile  areas  to 
the  productive  resources  of  the  country.     The  reclamation 

OF  SWAMP  LANDS  AS  SUCH  IS  NOT  ONE  OF  THE  POWERS  OF  GOV- 
ERNMENT GRANTED  BY  THE  CONSTITUTION,  BUT  THE  CONTROL 
OF  THE  RIVER  FOR  PURPOSES  OF  NAVIGATION  IS,  AND  FOR  THIS 
PURPOSE  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  VAST  SWAMPS,  ALONG  THE  LOWER 
REACHES  OF  THE  RIVERS,  IS  AS  MUCH  A  FUNCTION  OF  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT  AS   THE  IRRIGATION   OF   ARID   AND   SEMI-ARID   WASTES 


92  ARTIFICIAL   WATERWAYS 

AT  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  RIVERS.  The  channels  fill  up  because 
where  there  are  broad  stretches  of  lowland,  over  which  the 
river  spreads,  in  high  water,  the  river  channel  is  lost  in  a 
network  of  bayous  and  swamps.  When  confined  in  com- 
paratively narrow  channels,  by  means  of  levees,  the  cur- 
rent is  restrained  and  quickened  and  becomes  an  effective 
power  in  scouring  instead  of  clogging  the  bottom,  and  in 
preserving  the  channel;  so  that  we  have  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  question  of  navigation,  the  redemption  of 
swamp  lands  and  bank  protection." 

The  Government,  through  its  power  to 
regulate  interstate  commerce,  will  make 
canalization  incidentally  cover  irrigation,  for- 
est-preservation, drainage,  clarification,  bank- 
preservation.  With  an  open  Treasury  little 
difHculty  will  be  encountered  from  strict  con- 
structionists of  the  Constitution ;  the  re- 
served rights  of  the  States  will  hardly  assert 
themselves  to  prevent  expenditure  of  money 
which  must  inure  largely  to  their  local  benefit. 
An  abstract  proposition,  infringing  State  sov- 
ereignty, would  be  resisted,  but  a  concrete 
project,  flavored  with  Treasury  notes,  will  pass 
unchallenged. 

Mark  the  evolution  of  constitutional  con- 
struction; mark  also  the  return  of  the  canal 
to  popular  favor.     Deep-water  navigation  from 


THE   WATERWAYS    QUESTION  93 

St.  Louis  to  the  Gulf  commands  the  approval 
of  railway  managers,  as  well  as  publicists,  and 
is  knocking  at  the  Treasury  door  with  inviting 
countenance  from  within.  The  faith  and  pres- 
tige of  our  Nation  before  the  world  are  com- 
mitted to  the  speedy  construction  of  the 
Panama  Canal.  Such  powerful  examples  must 
exercise  a  contagious  local  influence  through- 
out the  country. 


APPENDIX 

Especial  attention  is  directed  to  the  following 
tables,  which,  it  is  believed,  comprise  in  compact 
comparative  form  all  the  essential  statistical  history 
of  the  State  canals,  as  shown  by  the  official  reports 
made  annually  by  the  State  officers  in  charge,  of  the 
result  of  the  adverse  conditions  upon  the  commerce 
of  the  Port  of  New  York  and  other  collateral  data 
of  interest  in  the  consideration  of  the  subject. 

Group  "A,"  relating  to  Canals  of  New 
York  State 

Table  I,  period  of  construction,  mileage,  etc. 

Table  II,  the  several  actual  and  proposed  enlarge- 
ments of  the  Erie  Canal. 

Table  III,  cost  of  construction  and  maintenance, 
and  revenue,  until  tolls  were  abohshed. 

Table  IV,  cost  of  canals  separately  stated ;  revenue, 
with  interest  allowance. 

Table  V,  volume  of  traffic,  toll  and  freight  rates, 
by  5 -year  periods. 

Table  VI,  value  of  commodities  transported,  by 
5-year  periods. 

Table  VII,  revenues,  expenses,  and  freights  paid, 
by  5-year  periods. 

95 


96  APPENDIX 

Table  VIII,  railway  competition,  tonnage,  and  cost 
of  transportation  compared. 

Group  "  B,"  relating  to  the  Commerce  of  New 
York,  etc. 

Table  IX,  Commerce  of  the  United  States  and  New 
York's  share,  (a)  prior  to  1858;  (^)  1858-1907. 

Table  X,  grain  and  flour  movement  and  relative 
receipts  at  seaboard  terminal  cities. 

Table  XI,  growth  of  New  York  by  periods,  thus 
enabling  canal  influence  to  be  noted. 

Group  "  C."     Miscellaneous  Statistics 

Table  XII,  statistics  relating  to  the  Commerce  of 
the  Great  Lakes. 

Table  XIII,  Canadian  canals  (Lakes  to  Seaboard). 

Table  XIV,  brief  data  as  to  progress  of  Panama 
Canal. 

Table  XV,  Expenditures  on  Panama  Canal,  to  July 
31,  1908. 


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INDEX 


Albany  Regency,  30,  37,  50. 
Appendix,  95. 
Austria-Hungary,  canals,  11. 

Babylon,  Great  Canal  of,  2. 
Belgium,  canals,  5,  6. 
Bridgewater,  Duke  of,  9. 

Canada,  canals,  13,  70-73,  no. 

capacity,  72,  no. 

competition  of,  70,  74,  76. 

cost  of,  14. 

freight  rates,  70. 

grain  movement,  76,  107. 
Chaldea,  canals,  2. 
Champlain  Canal,   New  York,  27, 

29,  48,  60,  97,  99. 
Charlemagne,  4. 

Cheapening  transportation,   15,  36, 
44,  62,  63,  75,  98,  103,  104. 
China,  canals,  2,  4,  14. 
Civil  War,  United  States,  effect  of, 

47- 
Clinton,  De  Witt,  22,  23,  25-30,  34. 
Clinton,  George,  18,  19,  28. 
Colden,  Cadwallader,  16. 
Colombia  and  Panama  Canal,   80, 

81. 
Commerce  of    United  States    and 

New  York's  share,  105,  106. 
Competition     against     New     York 

City,  67-87. 
Competition   of   railways,  14.     See 

also  New  York  State  canals. 
Cooperation    of    land     and    water 

routes,  74,  77,  78. 
Corinth  Canal,  11. 

De  Lesseps,  F.,  80. 
Denmark,  canals,  10. 
De  Witt,  Simeon,  24. 


Differentials     against     New     York 

City,  68. 
Dutch  as  canal  builders,  5,  6. 

Egypt,  canals,  2,  12. 

Erie  Canal,   New  York,   beneficial 

influence  of,  36,  40, 44, 61-64, 

67. 
breaking  ground  for,  28. 
capacity  of,  27,  37,  42,  58,  60,  98. 
cost  of,  2^,  42,  99,  100. 
dimensions,  actual  and  proposed, 

98. 
early  projects,  20,  22,  25. 
earnings  of,  48,  56,  99,  100,  103. 
enlargement  projects,  37,  41,  58, 

60,  74,  98. 
estimates  of  cost,  25,  27,  99,  100. 
freight  rates,  36,  40,  44,  53,  loi. 
opening  of,  30-33. 
profitable  to  State,  48,  56,  99,  loo. 
regulator  of  freight  rates,  63. 
tolls  on,  40,  46,  loi,  103. 
trafiic,  loi,  102. 
vessel  tonnage,  37,  41,  42,  58,  98. 

Federal     aid    for    canals.     United 

States,  24,  25,  92. 
France,  canals,  5,  7. 
Freight  rates,  early.  New  York,  21, 

23- 
general,  36,  39,  40,  44,  45,  62,  70, 
75,  loi,  104,  109. 
French  Panama  Canal  Co.,  79-81. 
Fulton,  Robert,  23,  25. 

Galveston,  Texas,  exports,  78. 
Georgian  Bay  Canal  project,   72. 
Germany,  canals,  7. 
Government  ownership,  New  York, 
64-66. 


"3 


114 


INDEX 


Grain  movement,  United  States  and 

Canada,  76,  107. 
Great  Britain,  canals,  3,  9. 
Great  Lakes,  commerce  of,  70,  109 . 
utilization  for  canals,  13,  17. 

Holland,  canals,  6. 

India,  canals,  12. 
Italy,  canals,  11. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  23. 

Kiel  Ship  Canal,  8. 

Locks,  invention  of,  5. 

Madison,  James,  25. 
Manchester  Ship  Canal,  9. 
Mingling    of    waters,    Erie    Canal, 

31- 
Montreal,  growth  of  grain  trade,  7  6, 

107. 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  22,  25,  26,  31. 

Newlands,  Senator  F.  G.,  on  water- 
ways, 90. 
New  York  City,  commerce  of,  68, 
105,  106. 
competition  against,  67-87. 
port  charges,  69. 
railway  discrimination,  68,  74. 
New  York  State  canals,  16-78,  97- 
104. 
abandoned  works,  52,  97,  100. 
abolition  of  tolls,  54,  57. 
boards  and  commissions,  25,  26, 

27.  44,  52- 
canal  debt,  26,  27,  40,  41,  42,  43, 

55.  59.  108. 
"canal  ring,"  38,  50,  51. 
competition  of  railways,   38,   45, 

46,  53.  61,  104. 
constitutional  provisions,  40,  47, 

51.  52.  54- 
construction  data,  97. 
cost  of,  35,  41,  42,  48,  56,  99,  100. 
decline  of,  54,  57. 
early  plans  and  surveys,  1 6-20,  25, 

27. 


earnmgs,  ^3,  35.  39.  42,  44,  53. 

54,  56,  99.  i°o.  103- 
efforts  to  improve,  58,  60. 
enlargements,  37,  41,  42,  59,  98. 

slow  progress  of,  37,  75. 
equipment    of,     compared     with 

railways,  48. 
extravagance  and  waste,  37,  50, 

51- 
financial  statements  of,  40,  42,  48, 

56,  99,  100. 
freight  rates,  21,  23,  36,  44,  45, 

53>  61,  63,   101,  103. 
estimated  reduction  of,  75,  98. 
imperative  need  of  improvement, 

58,  73- 
influence  on  growth  of  State,  57, 

64,  108. 
neglect  of,  49,  55,  64,  66,  70,  77. 
operating  cost,  44,  46,  51,  103. 
opposition  to,  22,  38,  49,  55,  59, 

77- 
patronage,  28,  29,  37. 
political  influences,  29,  38,  50. 
revenue.     See  Earnings, 
sale  of,  prohibited,  40,  52. 
superintendent  of  works,  52. 
tolls,  39,  44,  45,  46,   S3>  loi.  103- 

abolished,  54. 
traffic,  25,  39,  43,  45,   53,    56,  57, 

61,  loi,  102,  104. 
vessel  tonnage,  37,  41,  42,  60,  74, 

98,  104. 
New  York  State,  debt  of,  55,  108. 
growth  of,  57,  108. 
inefficient    canal    policy,  49,    55, 

58,  64,  66,  77. 
railway  subsidies,  39. 
valuation  of  property,  108. 

Panama  Canal,  79-87. 

Colombia  and  Panama,  80,  81. 

estimates  of  cost  and  work,  82, 
83,  III. 
tonnage  and  revenue,  85. 

expense  of,  83,  in. 

importance  of,  84,  86. 

progress  of  work,  83,  in. 
Public  ownership  of  utilities,  64-66. 
Puget  Sound,  e.xports,  78. 


INDEX 


"5 


Railway  competition,  14.  See  also 
New  York  State  canals. 

Railways,  inadequate  service  of,  73, 
74,  88. 

Religious  scruples  against  canals, 
12,  79. 

Roman  canals,  3. 

Russia,  canals,  10. 

St.  Lawrence  route,  70,  71. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie  (St.  Mary's  Falls) 

canals,  13,  71,  109. 
traffic  on,  109. 
Spain,  canals,  11. 
State  sovereignty  question,   United 

States,  26,  92. 
Statistical  tables,  97-111. 
Suez  Canal,  3,  12. 
Sweden,  canals,  11. 


Tammany,  New  York,  opposed  to 

canals,  22. 
Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  50. 
Tompkins,  D.  D.,  27,  29,  7,7,. 
Ton  mileage.  New  York,  canals  and 

railways,  104. 
Ton-mile  cost  freight,  98,  109. 

United  States,  canals,  13,  14. 
imperative  need  of,  16,  17. 

Washington,  George,  17,  18. 
Waterways  of  world,  14. 
Waterways  question,  88-93. 
Welland  Canal,  14,  70. 
World's  canals,  1-15. 
mileage  and  cost,  14. 


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